Acknowledgments

My gratitude to:

Parents Deborah and Dennis, brother Luke, and the Gallagher, Boisselle, Scott, and Steinle families;

Friends and colleagues Ted Janis and Phil Klay;

Friends and readers Elliot Ackerman, Nick Allen, Lea Carpenter, Eric Fair, Will Gehlen, Brian Hagen, Fahad Khan, Sanaë Lemoine, and Nick McDonell;

Friends and chiefs Brandon Willitts and Words After War and Paul Rieckhoff and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America;

Educators Loni Byloff and Mary Chrystal at Brookfield; Shelly Brewster and Hardy McNew at Bishop Manogue; Simone Caron and John McNally at Wake Forest; and David Ebershoff, Richard Ford, Lauren Grodstein, and Victor LaValle at Columbia;

The soldiers and interpreters of 2-14 Cavalry and 1-27 Infantry who served in Iraq from 2007–9;

Agent extraordinaire Amelia “Molly” Atlas and ICM Partners;

Atria editors Daniella Wexler and Peter Borland and Atria publisher Judith Curr, who believed in this book;

And, of course, fierce and lovely Anne.

To those I mentioned, and to the many others I didn’t—Sláinte.