Across five tours as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, Elliot Ackerman proved himself not only a fighter but also a leader, earning the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star. And 13 years after fighting in Fallujah, he added another honor to his name: his second novel, Dark at the Crossing, was a finalist for a National Book Award in 2017. In Places and Names, perhaps the most striking war memoir of the year, Ackerman attempts to make sense of the reasons he served (personal and geopolitical), the people he met, the kinship he felt and the reckonings he has since confronted. Places and Names is as clean and spare in its prose as it is sharp and unsparing in timely observation.
Buy now: Places and Names