I just finished reading "The Yellow Birds" by Kevin Powers, a powerful novel which follows two young soldiers during their tour of duty in Iraq and the struggles one of them faces upon his return home. It's a moving study of combat, guilt and friendship which I found immensely sad. But it also helped me better understand the causes and repercussions of PTSD and I recommend it to anyone who wants to gain insight into the experiences of the young men and women who have served in combat.Here are a few more fiction titles that examine the Iraqi War experience.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at 'the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal', three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew, has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war.
Sand Queen by Helen Benedict
Nineteen-year-old Kate Brady's vision of bringing honor to her family and democracy to the Middle East is tarnished when she joins the Army only to be assigned to a forgotten corner of the Iraq desert in 2003 as a prison guard, but she become acquainted with Naema Jassim, an Iraqi medical student whose father and brother are detainees, and through their parallel struggles to survive and hold tight to the people they love, the young women have a profound affect on each other's lives.
The Sandbox by David Zimmerman
Operating Base Cornucopia: A three hundred-year-old fortress in the remote Iraqi desert where a few dozen soldiers wait for their next assignment; among them, Private Toby Durrant, a self-described "broke nobody." Then a deadly ambush touches off events that put Durrant in the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy.
Wrongful Death by Robert Dugoni
Reluctantly aiding a bereaved widow in a wrongful death lawsuit against the government and military for the death of her Iraq war soldier husband, attorney David Sloane uncovers evidence of a dangerous adversary who retaliates by threatening David's family.
Betrayal by John Lescroart
When Dismas Hardy agrees to clean up the caseload of recently disappeared attorney Charlie Bowen, he thinks it will be easy. But one of the cases is far from small-time--the sensational clash between National Guard reservist Evan Scholler and an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Two rapid-fire events in Iraq conspired to bring the men into fatal conflict: Nolan's relationship with Evan's girlfriend, Tara, a beautiful school-teacher back home in the states, followed by a deadly incidentin which Nolan's apparent mistake results in the death of an innocent Iraqi family as well as seven men in Evan's platoon. As the murky relationship between the US government and its private contractors plays out in the personal drama of these two men, and the consequences become a desperate matter of life and death, Dismas Hardy begins to uncover a terrible and perilous truth that takes him far beyond the case and into the realm of assassination and treason.--From publisher description.
Fobbit by David Abrams
At Foreward Operating Base Triumph, a combat-avoiding staff sergeant named Chance Gooding spends his time composing press releases that spin grim events into statements more palatable to the public.
Last One In by Nicholas Kulish
Jimmy Stephens makes the worst mistake of his career as a gossip columnist when he wrongly accuses a big star of cheating on his wife. With lawsuits pending, Jimmy's imperious new editor blackmails him into taking the place of the paper's injured front-line war correspondent. Shipped off to the desert and embedded with a group of foulmouthed but fraternal Marines, Jimmy provides a bewildered but unfiltered view of the invasion of Iraq that is alternately hair-raising, hilarious, and heartbreaking.
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