The Yellow Birds

Kevin Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the US Army in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, where he was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. His debut novel, THE YELLOW BIRDS won the Guardian First Book Award 2012 and was a New York Times bestseller in its first week of publication. www.kevincpowers.com

'Reaffirms the power of fiction to tell the truth about the unspeakable ... a superb literary achievement. I urge everyone to read it.' -- CHRIS CLEAVE, author of The Other Hand and Gold 'Written with an intensity which is deeply compelling.' -- COLM TOIBIN, author of Brooklyn and The Master 'Thus far the definitive novel of our long wars in the Middle East; this book is certain to be read and taught for generations to come.' -- PHILIPP MEYER author of American Rust 'Harrowing, inexplicably beautiful, and utterly, urgently necessary.' -- ANN PATCHETT, Orange Prizewinning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder 'The most recent war is much like the most ancient, torn bodies, cracked psyches, the emotional roundelay of pride, pain, confusion and sorrow. In THE YELLOW BIRDS, Kevin Powers has delivered an exceptional novel from the war in Iraq, written in clean, evocative prose, lyric and graphic, in assured rhythms, a story for today and tomorrow and the next.' -- Daniel Woodrell, author of WINTER'S BONE 'This is a novel I've been waiting for. The Yellow Birds is born from experience and rendered with compassion and intelligence. All of us owe Kevin Powers our heartfelt gratitude.' -- ALICE SEBOLD, author of The Lovely Bones 'The Yellow Birds is a superb novel. Call it a war novel or a first novel or whatever you'd like. Powers has created a powerful work of art that captures the complexity and life altering realities of combat service. This book will endure. Read it and then put it way up on that high rare shelf alongside Ernest Hemingway and Tim O'Brien.' -- ANTHONY SWOFFORD, author of Jarhead 'Powers' poetic gifts render the experience of Americans in Iraq with great emotional intensity. War has been a subject of literature ever since The Iliad. The best books transcend their time and circumstances to say something enduring and truthful about war itself. The Yellow Birds belongs in that category.' -- PHILIP CAPUTO, author of the Vietnam classic A Rumour of War