Guardian First Book award 2012 shortlist announced | Books | The Guardian". theguardian.com . Retrieved 2014-06-28. A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. An award-winning journalist's dramatic account of a shooting that shook a community to its core, with important implications for the future Contrary to most of the other reviewers, I loved this. Absence of strict plot does not a bad novel make. The poetic imagery in this book is breathtaking and I found that such lyrical descriptions of the situations in the book forced me to slow down and really see it in a deeper, more emotional way that if it were more clinically written. There were also many a pithy quote to ponder upon and understand more deeply the plight of those serving our country in Iraq.

A] story that expertly blends true crime, environmental drama, and family saga. For a first nonfiction work, Murdoch has outdone herself by telling the story in a beautifully narrative way...Required reading for all fans of true crime. I've put off writing this review for a few days now while I mulled the book over because something in it just didn't work for me. And this, indeed, is a conundrum, because t Some might compare it to other war-themed books: The Naked and the Dead, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Things They Carried, or even A Separate Peace. They would, in my opinion, be misguided. MARTIN: I loved how you used Lissa’s story and relationships as a window into the history of the tribe. I also love how you walk us through the multi-generational stories of the women connected to Lissa’s life, like her Grandmother, Mother, and even her daughter Shauna. Can you talk about that?

Kevin Powers volunteered to join the army and served in Iraq from 2004-2005 as a machine gunner. He was in the Tal Afar and Mosul region (see map above showing the location of the events in the novel in the Northern part of the country),and that is also the same areas patrolled by Bartle, Sterling, and Murph in the novel.

Probabilmente di trovare il capolavoro così tanto reclamizzato, dai connazionali di Powers, e da recensori e commentatori nostrani. And so I read The Yellow Birds, a novel that is haunting, lyrical, and radiates the pain of taking part in and being witness to slaughter. Written by Kevin Powers (himself an Iraq War veteran), the novel is told using first person point of view, giving our main character, John Bartle, his own voice. In chapters that alternate between his service in Iraq and his painful return home, Bartle internally explores his own guilt and emotional agony over the brutal and inexplicable loss of his friend, Murphy, and the role he himself may have played in the incident. Mr. Powers sees beauty and he often describes beauty in his writing: "An egret flew just over my shoulder and skimmed the water so close and I thought there was no way a body could be so close to the edge of a thing and stay there and be in control. But the tips of its wings skimmed along the water just the same. The egret didn't mind what I believed, and it tilted some and disappeared into the glare of the gone sun and it was full of grace." The theme of inter-generational violence and inter-generational trauma was something that came up a lot in my conversations with Lissa and her family members. I wanted to be very cautious that I wasn’t taking a frame and placing it on their family. But it was something that her family talked about a lot. Lissa’s mother is a social worker and a professor. Her uncle, who helped raise her, is one of the foremost scholars on decolonization theory. The Yellow Birds is identified by the author as a novel so he alone knows what bears some resemblance to his own experience as a soldier in Iraq. There are not happy moments in this book for it is about war, man’s greatest inhumanity to man. The scene alternates between Richmond, Virginia and Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, Iraq. Private Bartle carries the war inside himself wherever he is.I have no doubt this book was received well. It probably should be. It just was difficult for me for all that I shared.

First off, I want to say that the problem with this book is probably with me. Many deeper, more thoughtful readers loved it, and I might have enjoyed it more if I was in the mood for a book I had to really concentrate on and think about, and if I had someone there to explain all the lyrical, beautifully written, but somewhat confusing prose. I had to keep rereading, but even now I am not sure of what happened or why in parts of the book. It is the story of a soldier serving in Iraq in 2004. He has foolishly, and a bit flippantly, promised a mother to take care of her son, with whom he serves. It turns out that nobody can keep anyone safe. The consequences of that promise, along with the fear, isolation, and craziness of war, are what make up the story. The story itself, was secondary to the immediate environment and the inner muse of the main character. Maybe that is why the story was somewhat hard to follow, and a bit anti-climactic. Here is an example of the writing: Ron Rash is renowned for his writing about Appalachia, but his latest book, The Caretaker, begins ... Author Sierra Crane Murdoch poses for a portrait on Sunday, July 14, 2019, in Hood River, Oregon, United States. Lynn Sherr. "A Soldier's Story: Returning Home From Iraq". parade.condenast.com . Retrieved 2014-06-28.I was reporting this story, but more in a scattered journalistic fashion, and I knew that at some point I wanted to write something bigger. I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted my focus to be, because I had observed this radical transformation of this community for some years, and I knew that transformation was going to continue. When I met Lissa I was first of all immediately taken with her because she is dynamic, and she is brilliant. She’s surprising, you know? She has all of these interesting qualities to her character that you don’t expect to find in one person. I write at the end of the book she is kind of iconoclastic, you cannot fit her in a box. I wonder why society feels so strongly about this need for every boy to prove himself to be a man in such a destructive way. I wonder why society doesn’t realise the futility or even the dangers that they are leading these young, impressionable boys to, with such words. Alas society has never understood the futility of fighting and maybe never will, but can’t we as readers can take that first step towards change by understanding it? I guess that was what Mr. Powers wanted to express through this book. Mechanically, the book is outstanding. My only complaint was that the poetic framework of the book was sometimes exposed, as in the multiple, rapid fire use of the word "and" to try to push the narrative down into a stream of consciousness channel. ". . . and . . . and . . . and . . .". Powers seemed like he was trying too hard to be poetic. It was too clever. Too contrived. Thankfully this only happened a few times. Featured in Angels & Urchins • Yummy Mummy • Families SW • Families North • Country Life • Nappy Valley