First published 1984
A young soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam becomes a disorienting descent into hell. Grenade blasts and sniper fire puncture the humid silence. Exhaustion and paranoia seep into every moment. Amidst the chaos, the narrator struggles to make sense of the brutality around him and the creeping moral compromises within. As the body count rises, he must confront the true cost of survival in a war that's rapidly unraveling.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, action
Vibes: dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: descent-into-madness, unreliable-narrator
Setting: United States
416 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow & Co
Content warnings: graphic-violence, violence, war