render

In the furnace of Baghdad during The Surge, Joe Cuero is carried far from Texas to a place where danger is often invisible and death can rise from the street without warning. In the summer of 2007, Baghdad is a landscape of ravaged neighborhoods, restless civilians, and the constant threat of roadside bombs. The mission is to root out the insurgents and regain control.
As the days stretch under heat, stress, and exhaustion, war begins to alter everything it touches: the men around him, the meaning of duty, even his own sense of self. What begins as a deployment becomes a descent into urban combat, where grief, rage, loyalty, and endurance blur together.
render is a story about what war strips away, what it leaves behind, and the fragile human bonds that remain.