The Good Soldiers - Softcover

Finkel, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312430027 ISBN 13: 9780312430023

Publisher: Picador, 2010

Synopsis

The Prequel to the Bestselling Thank You for Your Service, Now a Major Motion Picture

With The Good Soldiers, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Finkel has produced an eternal story ― not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. It became known as "the surge." Among those called to carry it out were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.

Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home ― forever changed. The chronicle of their tour is gripping, devastating, and deeply illuminating for anyone with an interest in human conflict.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR:
THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
SLATE.COM
THE BOSTON GLOBE
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
THE PLAIN DEALER (CLEVELAND)
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
WINNER OF THE HELEN BERNSTEIN BOOK AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM

About this title

Review

Book Description It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it "the surge." "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences," he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.

Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad almost every grueling step of the way.

What was the true story of the surge? Was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale--not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

Faces of the Surge
Beneath every policy decision made in the highest echelons of Washington about how a war should be fought are soldiers who live with those decisions every day. These are some of the faces of the U.S. strategy known as "the surge," as photographed by David Finkel, author of The Good Soldiers.

Soldiers of the 2-16 Rangers wait for permission to enter a mosque.

Two soldiers try to collect themselves after their Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.

Sergeant Adam Schumann, regarded as one of the battalion's best soldiers on the day he was sent home with severe post -traumatic stress disorder.

About the Author

David Finkel is a senior writer-in-residence at the Center for a New American Security and the national enterprise editor at The Washington Post. He is the recipient of the MacArther "Genius" Fellowship. Finkel won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2006 for a series of stories about U.S.-funded democracy efforts in Yemen. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and two daughters.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0312430027
• ISBN 13: 9780312430023
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336