I read this novel twice, the two readings within a few days of each other.
Rarely do I read a book twice, tho I’m beginning to rethink that and already know the book I’m going to read again soon (Tanya Chernov’s This Emotional Girl. See earlier review).
The Yellow Birds is the first novel of Kevin Powers, 
who as a 17 year old (?) joined the US Army and then served in Iraq in 2004/5. His novel takes place over a time period of about five years, from before the main character deploys to Iraq to the three or four years after he returns to Virginia, where he was born.
The novel has already been compared to, or put into the same category as, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried & Going After Cacciato.
