War
Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington embedded repeatedly with Second Platoon, Battle Company at Restrepo, a small outpost in the Korengal Valley. War is Junger's book length account of that time. He follows the men through firefights, boredom, injuries, and the strange emotional physics of a unit under sustained combat. The book is organized around three ideas, fear, killing, and love, and Junger uses each to explore how young soldiers survive and bond in extreme conditions. It became the basis of the documentary Restrepo. Together they form one of the closest looks at what infantry life in Afghanistan actually felt like.
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What you might want to know about War
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Sebastian Junger spends fifteen months with a single Army platoon at a remote outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous places on earth during the war.
Yes. Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington filmed the documentary Restrepo during the same embeds that produced this book, and the two works are meant to be read and watched together.
It is unflinching. Junger describes firefights, injuries, and deaths in detail, and readers should expect the book to reflect the reality of a platoon in sustained combat.
War was written by Sebastian Junger, published in 2010 by Twelve.
War is 287 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, War takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
War is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.