The Yellow Birds

By: Kevin Powers
Location: FIC POW
Genre: Iraq War

I have waited ages to blog this book. They call it- "devastating", " deeply compelling" , " telling the truth about the unspeakable" and yet "inexplicably beautiful".
It is about war, it is about the friendship and loss, by a young US Iraq veteran. I once read an amazing book called Up the Blue- is was the diary of a kiwi soldier in WWII, it impacted me deeply. War has no friends, war has no exceptions, it hurts, corrupts, scars, and leave the marks of death engraved on the soul of very participant. War chooses death over life, it imparts destruction as calmly as leaves radiating on an autumn tree- they all fall quietly but surely into death. Yet those that stand, survive the day, avoid the grim reaper come home and the movie in their heads engraved, conflicts with the scenes in front of their eyes- no wonder they are called survivors- they have to each day.

This is Yellow Birds story- 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.
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