Thank You for Your Service

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good Soldiers comes “a panoramic view of postwar life. . . . A book that every American should read” (Jake Tapper, Los Angeles Times).

No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous “surge”. Now, in Thank You for Your Service, Finkel tells the true story of those men as they return home and struggle to reintegrate—both into their family lives and into American society at large.

Finkel is with these veterans in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover. He creates an indelible portrait of what life after war is like for these soldiers, their families and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done.

Thank You for Your Service offers nuanced and complete explorations two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year