The Yellow Birds

**WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Extraordinary . . . a must-read' Guardian 'A masterpiece . . . a classic' The Times 'A stunning achievement' Sunday Times 'Remarkable . . . every line is a defiant assertion of the power of beauty to revivify' Hilary Mantel 'Harrowing, inexplicably beautiful, and utterly, urgently necessary' Ann Patchett** Everywhere John looks, he sees Murph. He flinches when cars drive past. His fingers clasp around the rifle he hasn't held for months. Wide-eyed strangers praise him as a hero, but he can feel himself disappearing. Back home after a year in Iraq, memories swarm around him: bodies burning in the crisp morning air. Sunlight falling through branches; bullets kicking up dust; ripples on a pond wavering like plucked strings. The promise he made, to a young man's mother, that her son would be brought home safely. **Written with profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is one of the most haunting, true and powerful novels of our time. A NEW YORK TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TIMES, TLS, EVENING STANDARD, SUNDAY EXPRESS, GUARDIAN, SCOTSMAN, SUNDAY HERALD, IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**