The Yellow Birds, written by Kevin Powers is the story of a young soldier who volunteered to fight in Iraq for the US Army. It is also a story about the bonds formed between brother-soldiers, the traumas suffered by people forced to kill others and the suffering of the people that are left at home.It is also about the trials that follow after all encompassing events, life changing events, traumatic events. The trials are experienced by the returnee; where meaning in the old life that was left behind is no longer present, the returnee has changed or perhaps the people who stayed behind grew in the returnee's absence. These and many other threads, layers, of psychological complexity are brought to life by Powers, and lyrically, in this finely written novel.
Mission to Paris is a spy novel written by Alan Furst, whom some people have compared to the likes of John Le Carre and Graham Greene. The novel's protagonist is a movie star who is in Paris to make a movie at a time when France and the world are holding their collective breaths, while Hitler prepares to run roughshod over his European neighbours. The story is compelling and well written and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys spy novels.