The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Kevin Powers, poet, author, and Iraq veteran, has written a deeply emotional and searing fictional account of the war in Iraq as narrated by a troubled young private. Switching between the battlefield and home after being discharged, The Yellow Birds is told from the perspective of Private Bartle, a man suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and the ghost of something too horrible to consciously recall.

Powers' command of language is astounding, his prose beautiful and evocative, and his descriptions poetic and lovely of even the most horrifying scenes. Through Private Bartle's perspective, he brings to light aspects of the soldier's experience that civilians may not expect: the unstoppable, unending grind of war and the PTSD that follows soldiers home. Instead of a story of a triumphant hero, the tale is tragic and its protagonist lost and alone, as things can never be the same after Private Bartle returns to the United States. One minor complaint is that Powers' sentences are often complex, but the re-read they require is rewarding and illuminating. This novel earns its comparisons to The Things They Carried and All Quiet on the Western Front and though - and perhaps because - it is a difficult, emotionally challenging book, it should be on everyone's reading list.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian