CROSSINGS

CROSSINGS is a searing, beautifully told memoir by Native American doctor, Jon Kerstetter, on the trials of being a doctor-soldier in the Iraq War, and then, after being wounded and suffering a stroke, of becoming a doctor-patient at home.

In Iraq, as a medic and officer, Kerstetter balanced two impossibly conflicting imperatives--to heal and to kill. When he suffered an injury and then a stroke during his third tour, he wound up back home in Iowa, no longer able to be either a doctor or a soldier. In this gorgeous memoir that moves from his impoverished upbringing on an Oneida reservation, to his harrowing stints as a volunteer medic in Kosovo and Bosnia, through the madness of Iraq and his intense mandate to assemble a team to identify the remains of Uday and Qusay Hussein, and the struggle afterward to come to terms with a life irrevocably changed, Kerstetter beautifully illuminates war and survival, the fragility of the human body, and the strength of will that lies within.

As a doctor-soldier, Kerstetter applies his unusual perspective on the Iraq War and war in general, and is as lyrical as he is powerful in writing about war and recovery. In a time when PTSD and veterans' care are becoming huge issues in the wake of Iraq and Afghanistan, CROSSINGS brilliantly captures the painful, poignant challenges faced by soldiers and their families alike.

Jon Kerstetter received his medical degree from the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, and his MFA degree from Ashland University in Ohio. He practiced emergency medicine and military medicine, serving as a combat physician and flight surgeon for the U.S. Army and completing three combat tours in Iraq. He has also taught disaster relief and practiced emergency medicine in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Honduras.