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The Yellow Birds

The Yellow Birds 3

by Kevin Powers
Paperback
Publication Date: 11/09/2012
5/5 Rating 3 Reviews

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"The war tried to kill us in the spring," begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger.



Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.



With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is a groundbreaking novel about the costs of war that is destined to become a classic.
ISBN:
9781444756135
9781444756135
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
11-09-2012
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton General Division
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
240
Dimensions (mm):
216x135x20mm
Weight:
0.24kg
Kevin Powers

Kevin Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. A former soldier who served with the US army in Iraq in 2004-5, he studied English at Virginia Commonwealth University after his honorable discharge and received an MFA in Poetry from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

His debut novel, The Yellow Birds, won the Guardian First book Award, the Hemingway Foundation/Pen Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His first collection of poetry, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, was published in 2014 and was shortlisted for both the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize.

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Reviews

4.67

Based on 3 reviews

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3 Reviews

Once human decency is stripped away, whats left? This was a surprising book. I thought it was going to be just another war story but it caught me from the opening line. Its about what war does to people and how this young man copes with being treated like a hero when he sure doesn't feel like one.

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At the crux of this novel is a promise made by John to his friends mother to bring her son Murph home from Iraq. This promise ends up weighing heavily on him during his service and haunting him long after his return home. The choice to enlist is also highlighted in this book and the distress of these characters at finding themselves in such horrifying circumstances is palpable. As is the psychological damage that continues long after returning home. John and Murph struggle to reconcile the brutality they witness and participate in with that of duty and honour. Neither is comfortable with having to alter their behaviour to survive and as they start to second guess themselves things begin to fall apart. This is an unforgettable story that everyone should read.

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Its been a long time since Ive felt the urge to re-read a book as soon as Ive finished it. The Yellow Birds inspires such an urge every time I think about it.



At its core is an intimate view of the impact of war, both psychological and physical, most particularly on the soldiers (many of whom though legally adult are very much boys, really, when they head off to war, as is really highlighted here) and the families (particularly mothers) who they leave behind, and who they return to as a changed person who although they have left the war behind them are never able to leave the battlefield.



One of the first things that struck me on commencing The Yellow Birds was the effect created by the juxtaposition of the beauty of Powers prose with the brutality and horror of that described. Several times I caught myself equally attracted to the writing itself, and repelled by the scene unfolding. I dont think Ive ever read anything quite like it. Kevin Power is a poet, so perhaps it isnt that surprising that his writing is so lyrical and paints a vivid picture with every word.



Im finding many fiction books Ive read recently have war running through them, either in the background of events taking place, or in a characters past, which motivates them to do certain things. Even so, Ive never really considered what it must be like for a soldier to be at war, and definitely not returned from war. Ive never been to war so could not say with certainty, but I suspect that The Yellow Birds comes pretty close to showing what war is like for many soldiers, and the continued affect it has when they return. Much of the raw emotion that is present in this work must be drawn from the authors own experiences in the Iraq war, and this, coupled with his mastery of language, ensures this debut novel packs a powerful punch.



Reading this book, and thinking about it since, makes me want to hold my son closely and protect him always from such a thing.

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