David Abrams

"Spanning eight hours, [this] novel follows a squad of six AWOL soldiers as they attempt to cross war-torn Baghdad on foot to attend the funeral of their leader, Staff Sergeant Rafe Morgan. In an inhospitable landscape, these men recall the most ancient of warriors while portraying a cross section of twenty-first century America--sometimes strong, sometimes weak, but subject to the same human flaws as all of us"--