Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War

A powerhouse work of nonfiction, Generation Kill expands on Evan Wright's acclaimed three-part series that appeared in Rolling Stone during the summer of 2003. His narrative follows the twenty-three marines of First Recon who spearheaded the blitzkrieg on Iraq. This elite unit, nicknamed "First Suicide Battalion," searched out enemy fighters by racing ahead of American battle forces and literally driving into suspected ambush points.

Evan Wright lived on the front lines with this platoon from the opening hours of combat, to the fall of Baghdad, through the start of the guerrilla war. He was welcomed into their ranks, and from this bird's-eye perspective he tells the unsettling story of young men trained by their country to be ruthless killers. He chronicles the triumphs and horrors — physical, moral, emotional, and spiritual — that these marines endured while achieving victory in a war many questioned before it began.

Wright's book is a timely account of war; even more important, it is a timeless description of the human drama taking place on today's battlefields. Written with brutal honesty, raw intensity, and startling intimacy, Generation Kill is destined to become a classic and take its place in the canon of the most captivating and authentic works of war literature. Index.

"Wright rode into Iraq on March 20, 2003, with a platoon of First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines — the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose motto is 'Swift, Silent, Deadly.' These highly trained and highly motivated First Recon Marines were the leading unit of the American-led invasion force. Wright wrote about that experience in a three-part series in Rolling Stone that was hailed for its evocative, accurate war reporting. This book, a greatly expanded version of that series, matches its accomplishment. Wright is a perceptive reporter and a facile writer. His account is a personality-driven, readable and insightful look at the Iraq War's first month from the Marine grunt's point of view. It jibes with other firsthand reports of the first phase of the Iraqi invasion (including David Zucchino's Thunder Run), showing the unsettling combination of feeble and vicious resistance put up by the Iraqi army, the Fedayeen militiamen and their Syrian allies against American forces bulldozing through towns and cities and into Baghdad. Wright paints compelling portraits of a handful of Marines, most of whom are young, street-smart and dedicated to the business of killing the enemy. As he shows them, the Marines' main problem was trying to sort out civilians from enemy fighters. Wright does not shy away from detailing what happened when the fog of war resulted in the deaths and maimings of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Nor does he hesitate to describe intimately the few instances in which Marines were killed and wounded. Fortunately, Wright is not exposing the strengths and weaknesses of a new generation of American fighting men, as the misleadingly hyped-up title and subtitle indicate. Instead, he presents a vivid, well-drawn picture of those fighters in action on the front lines in the blitzkrieg-like opening round of the Iraq War. 59,000 first printing. Agent, Richard Abate of ICM. (June 21)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Far from the news media's lionization of the captured Pfc. Jessica Lynch or its vilification of enlisted grunts in the Abu Ghraib torture debacle, Mr. Wright's portrait is nuanced and grounded in details often overlooked in daily journalistic accounts." Sharon Waxman, The New York Times

"A truly compulsive read....Shockingly honest. Evan Wright delivers a provocative, personality-driven portrait of his experience last spring with 23 First Recon Marines in Iraq." Entertainment Weekly

"I have rarely read a more frightening book. What Wright describes goes so far beyond the obvious 'war is hell' platitude that it wil keep any thinking reader awake for many nights." Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Wright's powerhouse work of nonfiction — which expands on his acclaimed three-part series that appeared in Rolling Stone during the summer of 2003 — follows the 23 marines of First Recon who spearheaded the blitzkrieg on Iraq.

Evan Wright is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. His Rolling Stone feature "Mad Dogs and Lawyers" is anthologized in Best American Crime Writing 2003.