The Things They Cannot Say
Stories Soldiers Won't Tell You About What They've Seen, Done or Failed to Do in War
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3.9 • 34 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
“The harrowing accounts detail the experiencesof 11 US soldiers and Marines who have been ravaged by modern warfare and its psychological aftermath. What makes Kevin’s reporting unique and essential is that it didn’t stop on the battlefield—he followed his subjects home.” — Vice
An important look at the unspoken and unknown truths of war and its impact, told through the personal stories of those who have been there.
In The Things They Cannot Say, eleven soldiers and Marines display a courage that transcends battlefield heroics—they share the truth about their wars. For each it means something different: one struggles to recover from a head injury he believes has stolen his ability to love, another attempts to make amends for the killing of an innocent man, while yet another finds respect for the enemy fighter who tried to kill him.
Award-winning journalist and author Kevin Sites asks the difficult questions of these combatants, many of whom he first met while in Afghanistan and Iraq and others he sought out from different wars: What is it like to kill? What is it like to be under fire? How do you know what’s right? What can you never forget?
Sites compiles the accounts of soldiers, Marines, their families and friends, and also shares the narrative of his own failures during war (including complicity in a murder) and the redemptive powers of storytelling in arresting a spiraling path of self-destruction.
He learns that war both gives and takes from those most involved in it. Some struggle in disequilibrium, while others find balance, usually with the help of communities who have learned to listen, without judgment, to the real stories of the men and women it has sent to fight its battles.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this riveting and emotionally raw debut, award-winning journalist Sites profiles 11 soldiers (including members of non-American militaries) to explore what it feels like to kill, "be shot, bombed or burned in combat," and how one goes on living after the fighting dies down. Sites opens candidly with his own experience, describing how a moment of journalistic indifference in 2004 resulted in the murder of a captured Iraqi insurgent, a tragedy the author dwells on intermittently throughout the book. Drawing from interviews and military records, Sites goes on to tell the stories of veterans of the wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, and, in the case of his own father, WWII. Whether stationed in sultry jungles, urban streets, or rugged mountains, soldiers are asked to endure intense physical and mental traumas, and while common threads weave throughout these stories, each is unique: one describes the horror of witnessing the crucifixion of a deceased North Vietnamese Army officer; another tells of the guilt that accompanies friendly fire. But these gripping stories do not equal "an indictment against hope"; they are evidence of a profound desire to heal. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Overwhelming in the best way
Eye opening, heartbreaking, and fulfilling. I will always cherish this book.
The things they cannot say
Great book
Couldn't put it down
I read this cover to cover, and found myself crying a few times. This book is extremely insightful to those who have sworn to protect. My husband is retired Army, and has done tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He's now a defense contractor who spends 9 months out of the year living in a wooden shack in the mountains of Afghanistan. I've always wondered what he's seen, where he's been, what he's done...and now I know just a fragment. Thank you again...