The Forever War

By: Dexter Filkins

Published September 16th 2008 by Borzoi Books/Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (first published 2008)

Category: Biography

Pages: 342 pages

ISBN: 9780307266392

Description:
From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time.

Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, the prizewinning New York Times correspondent whose work was hailed by David Halberstam as Òreporting of the highest quality imaginable,Ó we witness the remarkable chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continued with the attacks of 9/11, and moved on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

FilkinsÕs narrative moves across a vast and various landscape of amazing characters and astonishing scenes: deserts, mountains, and streets of carnage; a public amputation performed by Taliban; children frolicking in minefields; skies streaked white by the contrails of B-52s; a nightÕs sleep in the rubble of Ground Zero.

We embark on a foot patrol through the shadowy streets of Ramadi, venture into a torture chamber run by Saddam Hussein. We go into the homes of suicide bombers and into street-to-street fighting with a battalion of marines. We meet Iraqi insurgents, an American captain who loses a quarter of his men in eight days, and a young soldier from Georgia on a rooftop at midnight reminiscing about his girlfriend back home. A car bomb explodes, bullets fly, and a mother cradles her blinded son.

Like no other book, The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of todayÕs battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about AmericaÕs wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.