THESE HEROIC, HAPPY DEAD: STORIES

THESE HEROIC, HAPPY DEAD (Tim Duggan Books; April 26, 2016), a poignant debut by National Magazine Award winner Luke Mogelson, forms an intensely moving portrait of the war in Afghanistan, and life in, and after, the army. Mogelson is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, with his fiction appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Hudson Review, and others. The seeds for THESE HEROIC, HAPPY DEAD were planted while Mogelson was overseas in Kabul reporting for the New York Times Magazine. Over a period of three years, Mogelson was embedded, as a reporter, with U.S. Army units in eastern Afghanistan, with Marines in Helmand Province, and with the Afghan National Army in central Afghanistan.

This harrowing collection of stories provides an unsentimental, unflinching glimpse into the lives of those forever changed by war. These powerful stories, linked together with graceful subtlety, distill the consequences of combat for both soldiers and civilians when the trauma and violence experienced overseas seep into life at home.

Troubled veterans first introduced as criminals in "To the Lake" and "Visitors" appear later in "New Guidance" and "Kids", during the deployments that shaped their futures. A seemingly minor solider in "New Guidance" become the protagonist of "A Human Cry", where his alienation from society leads to a shocking confrontation. The fate of a hapless Gulf War veteran who reenlists in "Sea Bass" is revealed in "Peacetime", the story of a New York City medic's struggle with his tendency toward calamity. A shady contractor job gone wrong in "A Beautiful Country" is a news item for a reporter in "Total Solar." Shifting in time and narrative perspective ; from the home front to active combat, between experienced leaders, flawed infantrymen, a mother, a child, an Afghan-American translator, and a civilian journalist ; these stories take the full measure of the cost of war.

THESE HEROIC, HAPPY DEAD is an evocative, deeply powerful work about duty, loss, and the redemptive force of storytelling, charting the legacy of violence and the plight of people hungry for atonement. Luke Mogelson introduces himself as a writer of prodigious talent and ambition. Written with remarkable insight, this stunning debut heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.