Nick McDonell is a novelist and journalist. Born in New York City in 1984, he studied at Harvard and Oxford. He is the author of several books, including the novel Twelve, which was a New York Times bestseller.
Praise for The Bodies in Person:
“Striking…pulsating with attention to moral principle.”
—The New Republic
“This first-hand contemplation of death in war is a gift to future
historians and a gesture to moral philosophers. It helps us to see
the world as it is while gently encouraging us to ask how it might
be better.“
—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
"Some of the finest war reporting by an American that I have ever
read.”
—Dennis Covington, The American Scholar
"Dark and electric.. part-Dispatches odyssey, part-Behind the
Beautiful Forevers exploration of justice and inequality, the book
works because of McDonell’s restraint. He doesn’t condemn. But he
also refuses to equivocate. He shows, and tells. And shows and
tells. And shows. And tells. Until it hurts."
—Matt Gallagher, Time
“McDonell’s newest book, The Bodies in Person: An Account of
Civilian Casualties in American Wars, positions itself somewhere
between reportage and social analysis, moving journalistically from
the streets of Mosul and Baghdad to a drone-warfare control room.
The degree of access is incredible: McDonell embeds with a civil
defense squad, digging people out of air-struck buildings while
dodging ISIS snipers; he interviews senior American officers,
visits refugee camps, goes on patrol, repeatedly speaks on the
phone to a Taliban spokesman who turns out to be several people
using a single cover name. But McDonell is clearly aiming at
something bigger than the curation of uncomfortable facts; he’s
interested in the big moral ideas underpinning the making and
instantiating of American foreign policy. There cannot be many
people with a more comprehensive view of the War on Terror, and his
engagement with the debate over what a more ethical foreign policy
might look like is worth considering.”—The Point
“This is an extremely well-reported, extremely tough-minded look at
how we Americans think about, or don’t think about, civilian deaths
in our recent foreign wars. Just as importantly, it paints vivid
portraits of the Iraqi army and police officers tasked with
cleaning up after our bombs. After reading The Bodies in Person,
the human impact of our way of fighting ISIS, among other targets,
will never leave your conscience— and never should.” —Dave Eggers,
author of The Monk of Mokha and What Is the What
"The Bodies in Person is a haunting work of reportage from the
frontlines of America’s wars, in the spirit of classic writing on
Vietnam, that delves deep into our collective martial psyche.
McDonell is a brilliant reporter who rescues these people from
anonymity, which makes Bodies a crucial first step in their pursuit
of justice. This is the most important book on the human cost of
America’s wars to appear in decades."
—Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among the Living
“Beware. This masterpiece will rob you of the Germans’ wartime
excuse: you didn’t know. McDonell exposes Pentagon casualty
statistics for what they are: real people, human beings like
you and me with names, families, vocations, loves, hates and fears.
This is war, and it has rarely been better portrayed.”
—Charles Glass, author of Tribes with Flags and The
Deserters
“With deep and wide reporting, Nick McDonell plots the origin,
trajectory, and impact of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We meet the people who request, orchestrate, and authorize them, as
well as those who dread, survive, and are killed by them.
Throughout it all, McDonell relentlessly probes his own
complicity—and, by extension, ours. Both lyrical and incisive, The
Bodies in Person is a forceful reckoning with America’s favorite
way of waging war.”
—Luke Mogelson, author of These Heroic, Happy Dead
“Grim indeed and sometimes gruesome—and a brave work of
investigation.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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