Captain Henry

Centuries and continents apart, two American soldiers deploy in the years after "mission accomplished"—only to discover a land far from peace. In 1870, five years after the United States defeated rebelling southern states, eighteen-year-old Henry McDonald enlists in the U.S. military. Henry's sharp shooting and sharper mind while chasing Ku Kluxers in the South earns him the title "Private Trouble"—but real trouble still wreaks havoc in the rebellious Georgia in the form of lynchings, looting, and guerrilla violence. In 2006, Lieutenant Sam Musgrave serves her second tour in Baghdad, three years after President Bush declared an end to combat operations in Iraq. Proud to represent her country but confounded by her government's contributions to rising tensions, Sam contemplates the futility of her work all while harboring a risky secret back home—her relationship with Brighid Doran, whose own contemplations in the dusty archives of Springfield, Massachusetts lead her straight to Lieutenant Trouble himself. At once an evocative love story and a searing indictment of U.S. military policy at home and abroad, CAPTAIN HENRY steps inside the heart of the American soldier, stuck in unwinnable wars and abandoned campaigns.