Kāpiti College Library

Notes

WINNER OF THE 2010 J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK PRIZE
WINNER OF THE CORNELIUS RYAN AWARD FOR BEST NONFICTION BOOK ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB AWARDS
WINNER OF THE HELEN BERNSTEIN BOOK AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM
It was the last-chance moment of the war.
In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. It became known as the surge. Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences, he told a sceptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.
Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed.
What is the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions that the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. He was with Battalion 2-16 in Baghdad almost every gruelling step of the way.
Combining the action of Mark Bowdens Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim OBriens The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, Finkel has also produced an eternal tale not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.
PRAISE FOR DAVID FINKEL
An extremely fluent and vivid, and compulsively readable, piece of work. The Age
Finkel brilliantly captures the terrors of ordinary men enduring extraordinary circumstances ... ferociously reported, darkly humorous and spellbinding ... Finkel has made art out of a defining moment in history. The New York Times