Helen Benedict has been writing about refugees and war for many years, both in her three most recent novels, The Good Deed, Wolf Season and Sand Queen, and in her 2022 book of nonfiction, Map of Hope & Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece. A recipient of the PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History, the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, Benedict is also the author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. Her writings inspired a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of those sexually assaulted in the military and the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War. She is a professor at Columbia University in New York.
“An unprecedented breakthrough novel about life after war. Once again Helen Benedict has blazed a trail in this brutal yet compassionate story of deep human perseverance. Compelling and beautifully written, it is one of the most important books Americans could read, not just about the war in Iraq, but about war in general.” —Cara Hoffman, author of Running, Be Safe, I Love You and So Much Pretty “Writing with rare passion and integrity, Helen Benedict brings to light—and life—the wreckage of the American misadventure in Iraq. This is not only a massively good book, it is absolutely necessary.” —Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, author of The Storyteller of Marrakesh and The Watch