This first novel from a widely published journalist and highly decorated Marine with four tours of duty speaks with the voice of authority and experience about one of the most tangled subjects of our time—the meaning, origins, and purpose of continual warfare in Afghanistan, and its impact on the lives of all involved, including Afghanis (the “green”) and Americans (“the blue”). The story follows the life of Aziz from his childhood to the cusp of manhood—a much wrought concept here—and the moral landscape he navigates, which is as treacherous as the mountain switchbacks traveled and mined by those who fight. The reader comes away more than sobered by the non-partisan perspective that reveals a sobering and universal truth, and is told in the spare, beautiful cadences that recall Hemingway’s stripped down eloquence. This important novel will surely take its place among the finest of war literature, joining especially recent contemporary classics like The Things They Carried.