Redeployment

Phil Klay · b. 1983 · United States

Why it matters

Twelve linked stories rotate through grunts, chaplains, and mortuary affairs officers, each grappling differently with combat's violence and an even harder homecoming. Klay's National Book Award winner became a defining literary document of the Iraq War.

At a glance

Direct, plainspoken prose despite unflinching violence and shifting narrators story to story.