What people are saying-

“With his narrative gifts and vivid prose -- as free, thank God, of literary posturing as it is of war-correspondent chest-thumping -- Junger masterfully chronicles the platoon's 15-month tour of duty...Junger makes us see the terror, monotony, misery, comradeship and lunatic excitement that have been elements of all wars since, say, the siege of Troy. He thus becomes a kind of 21st-century battle singer, narrating the deeds and misdeeds of his heroes while explaining what makes them do what they do…It's the best writing I've seen on the subject since J. Glenn Gray's 1959 classic, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle. . . . Junger's sketches of the men are deft, his ear for their quirky speech (aided by video recordings) spot on . . . This splendid book should help the rest of us understand them -- and war itself -- a little better.”

—Philip Caputo, Washington Post

“Absorbing and original . . .  Junger is aiming for more than just a boots-on-the-ground narrative of the travails of fighting men . . . . WAR strives to offer not just a picture of American fighting men but a discourse on the nature of war itself. This is no small ambition . . . He writes some beautiful sentences about this ugly world.”

—Dexter Filkins, New York Times Book Review

“With his blue-eyed, chiseled and starting-to-grizzle looks, Junger is just the specimen Hollywood would cast as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan to ensure a box office hit...But to assume that Junger had easy access diminishes his reporting skills and his commitment to the story.  At age 48, he’s a generation older than most of the soldiers he accompanied into combat over the course of their 15-month deployment and who instinctively put up their guard against an outsider...The resulting book is written in the first person, but it is observational, offering no critique of the combat he witnessed, taking no position on the efficiency, logic or value of the war.  He offers a close-up view of men and the raw elements of war: fear and courage, killing and death, love and brotherhood.”

—Marjorie Miller, Los Angeles Times

“Ferocious and compelling...Junger is a master at helping readers understand how soldiers feel and how these emotions affect their fight through the course of deployment.  The physical and psychological tension for each one of the 173^rd Brigade rises through the course of the book.  So does the passion in Junger’s narrative.”

—Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR.org

“Riveting . . . Junger mixes visceral combat scenes—raptly aware of his own fear and exhaustion—with quieter reportage and insightful discussions of the physiology, social psychology, and even genetics of soldiering. The result is an unforgettable portrait of men under fire.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The latest flexing of journalistic muscle from Vanity Fair contributor Junger  . . . The author dives into the most perilous form of immersion journalism, attempting to create an unflinching account of frontline combat. The prototype of this approach is Michael Herr’s peerless Dispatches (1977), a thoroughly unsentimental, grunt-level view of the Vietnam War’s bloodiest years. Yet if Junger’s dispatches from the fighting in Afghanistan solidify anything, it’s that war American-style hasn’t evolved much in the decades since Herr’s book . . . As in The Perfect Storm (1997), Junger blends popular science, psychology and history with a breathlessly paced narrative . . . Harrowing.”

—Kirkus Reviews

 “It is a gripping account of how modern warfare is experienced by those who do the fighting, and its focus is that of a laser, not a floodlight . . . WAR is full of stories that prove the adage about all politics being local.”

—Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

“[WAR is] a riveting account of the 14 months Junger (The Perfect Storm) spent embedded with a platoon in one of the bloodiest, most remote pockets of Afghanistan.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“The Perfect Storm author obviously has a thing for men in danger. In his long-awaited . . . account of the 15 months he spent embedded with a U.S. platoon in eastern Afghanistan, he takes on the modern-day soldier.”

—Details

“What’s Sebastian Junger’s WAR good for?  Quite a bit...Elemental and essential...remarkable reporting and writing...A sweeping picture emerges from a mosaic of close-ups.”

—Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

“This new book is about war the way The Perfect Storm was about weather. In both cases, Junger’s real interest lies elsewhere. Many journalists embed with the military. Junger wants to get inside something more private and inscrutable: the nature of courage . . . War is messy and improvisational and refuses to conform to a narrative arc, and much the same could be said — approvingly — about WAR. It does not unfold chronologically. It does not track the evolution of the war. It does not have a hero, or even a protagonist . . . Junger describes combat so lucidly . . . This is potent material, seldom rendered better. But there’s a price to be paid for Junger’s narrow focus. In seeing war as the men do, we miss everything they miss. And that’s a lot . . . you cannot fault a man for the book he didn’t write — especially when the book he did write is extraordinary. Last month, the US military closed the Korengal outpost, a tacit admission that the fight there was too costly or too insignificant (or, worse, both) to continue. For the men whose antiparadise is gone, the book is a stunning memorial. It is a flawed, troubling, terrific work, so good that one wishes it were perfect. But perhaps that is just a refracted desire, born of WAR itself: We see in it the good in us, and regret that we are not better.”

—Boston Globe

“[Junger] explains the soldiers' predicaments with an exacting clarity that lends the book the immediacy of a thriller novel . . . fascinating and even harrowing . . . Rather than detract from the intensity of the larger story, these carefully explicated passages lend the book real-world consequences, inviting the reader to put themselves in the soldiers' place . . . Even when Junger moves from the Korengal Valley to more familiar American homes and hospitals, the book never loses its grip or its powerful empathy.”

—Washington Post Express

“Junger, who made five trips to Afghanistan for Vanity Fair magazine, is one of the few embeds out there who gets it . . . Junger is not a faux embedded Green Zone reporter . . . Junger writes about what these guys go through, the way they talk, how they view their war, the rush it gives them - honestly and in a language that's reminiscent of Michael Herr's Vietnam classic Dispatches.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“It takes a very good book to carry off a title as portentous as WAR, and Sebastian Junger has written one...it is, among other things, an outstanding war report: a precise a gripping account of some of the fiercest battles involving American soldiers in recent times.”

—The Economist

“The title suggests the ambition of the work...The two-legged, Sebastian-does-Afghanistan project reminds us that Junger has become a brand.  But his reporting reminds us that he’s earned his star.”

—Outside Magazine

“Junger strips combat of its Hollywood-style glory and instructs us in its harsh realities.  That is a valuable service, and WAR is a valuable book.”

—Philip Seib, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Gripping . . . Junger’s book, based on notes and handheld camera footage, is a tightly written, adrenaline-filled account of the rather grim psychological, physiological and tactical realities of modern battle. If the Afghanistan war is one worth inspecting closely, WAR is the closest one should hope to get.”

—Very Short List

“Reading WAR. . . almost allows you to imagine you've taken your own turn in that steep, rocky, dangerous valley. And like actual war, when you've finished the book, you miss the insane excitement.”

—Fred Grimm, Miami Herald

“Sebastian Junger tells it like it is . . . Understanding the finer nuances of military life - from the motivations of its soldiers to its acronym-riddled language to the dark humor that pervades every combat unit - escapes most embedded journalists. They never quite get into the gritty details of what it's like to fight a war. So for those of us who've been through it they seem like voyeurs and their coverage always maintains a safe distance . . . Such is not the case in Junger's WAR, a book certain to join the annals of definitive war literature penned in the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) era. Having embedded with an infantry unit on a remote outpost in Afghanistan in 2007-08, Junger reports on what he saw and survived with raw immediacy. The result is a poignant book that is part-memoir and part-case study analyzing why men fight, and continue to fight, in the midst of chaos . . . WAR interweaves the immediacy of these micro experiences with grander macro analysis, and this also helps separate the book from just another harrowing war tale.”

—Matt Gallagher, Huffington Post

“[WAR] effectively communicates the feelings, let alone the physical conditions, of men in the platoon, including the nonjudgmental, fair-minded author, who in effect evolved from observer to member...This is not an anti-war book, though Mr. Junger deplores the loss of men who become his friends.  At the same time, it’s not sensational; it’s straightforward and analytical...Readers seeking explanation of why we are in Afghanistan should look elsewhere.  Those seeking insight into war’s innards will appreciate the details Mr. Junger so sharply and respectfully delivers.”

—Carlo Wolff, Pittsburg Post-Gazette

“Junger uses the lens of a small group of men — Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade — to both examine the war’s big abstractions and make them human and concrete. And the soldiers’ narratives, their lives in country, are the central threads around which “War” is woven, making wrenching, gripping reading in the sure hands of a writer as observant, scrupulous and meticulous as Junger . . . eportage such as Junger’s WAR unflinchingly documents that landscape for the rest of us — those really responsible for the bullets.”

—The Buffalo News

"With his WAR, Junger strips combat of its Hollywood-style glory and instructs us in its harsh realities. That is a valuable service, and WAR is a valuable book."

—Dallas Morning News

“Junger provides humanity and authenticity while he explains psychology and physiology, without military acronyms or scientific terminology. Junger is no Sun Tzu but there is enlightenment in the art of WAR.”

—J. Huffman, Military Times

“Not since Tim O’Brien introduced us to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s platoon in the The Things They Carried, has an author so successfully captured the primitive experience of combat as Sebastian Junger in his new classic, WAR . . . Comprised of bitter, beautifully observed truths butting up against unthinkable flashes of genuine panic, Junger touches a raw, exposed nerve that exists beneath top-fold headlines and political pantomime... It makes for one of the most compelling love stories I’ve ever read . . . Junger tells their story with an authorial grit that speaks to the nature of the men he chronicles.”

—Reid Smith, The Daily Caller