I decided to include The Yellow Birds after having seen a few reviews which made it sound interesting. I wanted to branch out and include literature on other wars than just WWI, WWII and Vietnam. Iraq seemed an excellent choice and I’m very curious to see what we will think of this novel.

Kevin Powers is a veteran of the Iraq war. The Yellow Birds is his first novel.

Here are the first sentences

The war tried to kill us in the spring. As grass greened the plains of Niniveh and the weather warmed, we patrolled the low-slung hills beyond the cities and towns. We moved over them and through the tall grass on faith, kneading paths into the windswept growth like pioneers.

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The discussion starts on Monday, 28 January 2013.

Further information on the Literature and War Readalong 2013, including all the book blurbs, can be found here.