About this item
A war memoir of unusual literary beauty and power from the acclaimed poet who wrote the poem The Hurt Locker. In 2003, Sergeant Brian Turner crossed the line of departure with a convoy of soldiers headed into the Iraqi desert. Now he lies awake each night beside his sleeping wife, imagining himself as a drone aircraft, hovering over the terrains of Bosnia and Vietnam, Iraq and Northern Ireland, the killing fields of Cambodia and the death camps of Europe.In this breathtaking memoir, award-winning poet Brian Turner retraces his war experiencepre-deployment to combat zone, homecoming to aftermath. Free of self-indulgence or self-glorification, his account combines recollection with the imaginations efforts to make reality comprehensible. Across time, he seeks parallels in the histories of others who have gone to war, especially his taciturn grandfather World War II, father Cold War, and uncle Vietnam.