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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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SOLDIER GIRLS
The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War
Soldier Girls tells the story of three women who deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq and become close to each other in the process. It is effectively a nonfiction novel, a gripping narrative that spans the last decade, and shows how the two wars unfolded from the perspective of the three main characters.
We watch as the main character, a young woman named Krista Rose Gladding, enlists in the Indiana National Guard at the age of eighteen in March 2001. The country has not been at war for years, and she believes she can serve in the Guard without ever becoming a real soldier. She enlists only to receive college tuition; her mother is on welfare and her father is in and out of jail.
That fall, 9/11 is happening. Krista Rose voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, and she does not agree with many of the decisions that are made by President George W. Bush. But she has to obey her orders, and in 2004 she ships off to Afghanistan. While living at Camp Phoenix, a military post in Kabul, she becomes close friends with Desiree Flood, a single mother of three children. Desiree is a troublemaker who constantly rebels against the regulated life they are leading. Krista Rose also befriends Betsy Hicks, an older woman who becomes a grandmother while they are serving in Afghanistan.
Krista, Desiree, and Betsy rely upon each other to survive the year they spend on the post, then both Betsy and Desiree are sent to Iraq, Desiree hits a roadside bomb and returns home with a brain injury. She relies heavily on Krista and Betsy to get her life back together. By 2013 however, it is clear that Desiree's children have paid a heavy price for their mother's absences. Her son is in jail, and one of her daughters fails eighth-grade, even though she is highly intelligent.
Krista, Betsy, and Desiree embody the changing face of war. More women served in Iraq and Afghanistan than in any other conflict in our nation's history. And the United States relied more heavily upon the National Guard than ever before. Both because they are female and because they served in the Guard, the three women represent the type of soldier the military has turned to in increasing numbers. We are familiar with the experiences of men who are sent to war, but the experiences of women like Krista, Desiree and Betsy have not been described. Soldier Girls tells their stories in colorful detail, with humor, sensitivity, and deep insight.
Helen Thorpe was born in London and grew up in New Jersey. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, and Harper’s Bazaar. Her radio stories have aired on This American Life and Sound Print. She is the author of Just Like Us and lives in Denver.
That fall, 9/11 is happening. Krista Rose voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, and she does not agree with many of the decisions that are made by President George W. Bush. But she has to obey her orders, and in 2004 she ships off to Afghanistan. While living at Camp Phoenix, a military post in Kabul, she becomes close friends with Desiree Flood, a single mother of three children. Desiree is a troublemaker who constantly rebels against the regulated life they are leading. Krista Rose also befriends Betsy Hicks, an older woman who becomes a grandmother while they are serving in Afghanistan.
Krista, Desiree, and Betsy rely upon each other to survive the year they spend on the post, then both Betsy and Desiree are sent to Iraq, Desiree hits a roadside bomb and returns home with a brain injury. She relies heavily on Krista and Betsy to get her life back together. By 2013 however, it is clear that Desiree's children have paid a heavy price for their mother's absences. Her son is in jail, and one of her daughters fails eighth-grade, even though she is highly intelligent.
Krista, Betsy, and Desiree embody the changing face of war. More women served in Iraq and Afghanistan than in any other conflict in our nation's history. And the United States relied more heavily upon the National Guard than ever before. Both because they are female and because they served in the Guard, the three women represent the type of soldier the military has turned to in increasing numbers. We are familiar with the experiences of men who are sent to war, but the experiences of women like Krista, Desiree and Betsy have not been described. Soldier Girls tells their stories in colorful detail, with humor, sensitivity, and deep insight.
Helen Thorpe was born in London and grew up in New Jersey. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, and Harper’s Bazaar. Her radio stories have aired on This American Life and Sound Print. She is the author of Just Like Us and lives in Denver.
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Book
Published 2014-08-01 by Scribner |
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Book
Published 2014-08-01 by Scribner |