The Yellow Birds

By: Kevin Powers

Narrated by: Holter Graham

An unforgettable depiction of the psychological impact of war by a young Iraq veteran and poet, The Yellow Birds is already being hailed as a modern classic.

Everywhere John looks, he sees Murph. He flinches when cars drive past. His fingers clasp around the rifle he hasn't held for months. Wide-eyed strangers praise him as a hero, but he can feel himself disappearing. Back home after a year in Iraq, memories swarm around him: bodies burning in the crisp morning air. Sunlight falling through branches; bullets kicking up dust; ripples on a pond wavering like plucked strings. The promise he made, to a young man's mother, that her son would be brought home safely....

©2012 Kevin Powers (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

“Kevin Powers has conjured a poetic and devastating account of war's effect on the individual.” (Damian Lewis, star of Homeland and Band of Brothers)

“Reaffirms the power of fiction to tell the truth about the unspeakable ... a superb literary achievement. I urge everyone to read it.” (Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand and Gold)

“Harrowing, inexplicably beautiful, and utterly, urgently necessary.” (Ann Patchett, Orange Prizewinning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder)

“This is a novel I've been waiting for. The Yellow Birds is born from experience and rendered with compassion and intelligence. All of us owe Kevin Powers our heartfelt gratitude.”(Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones)

“The Yellow Birds is a superb novel. Call it a war novel or a first novel or whatever you'd like. Powers has created a powerful work of art that captures the complexity and life altering realities of combat service. This book will endure. Read it and then put it way up on that high rare shelf alongside Ernest Hemingway and Tim O'Brien.” (Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead)

“Extraordinary . . . beautifully accomplished. The mark of an artist of the first order . . . a must-read book.” ( Guardian)

“This book epitomises the power of the written word; the language is at once poetic and brutal, vivid and sparse. A stunning, timely and engrossing novel.” ( Bookseller)

Excellence all round

If you prefer your books action-driven, fast-paced, more linear, chronological, this is probably not for you, although the war action is there in all its devastating detail. The story alternates between events in Iraq in 2004-2005 and alienation and repercussions back home in the US afterwards. The narrator did a very good job of portraying the internal voice of the young soldier. The story, as it is pieced together, is heart-breaking. What takes this book way beyond the usual war novel is the exquisite writing. One of my favourite books this year.

Compelling story but disjointed and often too slow

Whilst the beginning was gripping, the story lost momentum a few chapters in, and the non-linear narrative was often very confusing; a chapter set in late 2005 would precede a chapter set in spring 2004 and so on. Perhaps that would have been easier to follow in print, but it was difficult to understand what was going on. Too much introspection and not enough action made for a slow "read" despite Holter Graham's best efforts to bring life to the story.