The Harvard Square Book Circle

The Harvard Square Book Circle, our in-store book club, will discuss Sebastian Junger's War, as part of our participation in this year′s Cambridge READS program.

In War, Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat—the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily basis.

"Written in sinewy, stripped-to-the-waist prose, War not only paints vivid profiles of the U.S. soldiers Junger met, and the harrowing conditions they endured, it also penetrates deeply into the strange, terrifying allure of combat and the motivations of the young men who mostly wage it. The book has drawn critical comparisons with such canonical literature as Michael Herr's Vietnam-era Dispatches and the World War I and Spanish Civil War reflections of Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell." —The Los Angeles Times

Cambridge READS is a citywide book club. Each year, the entire Cambridge community is invited to read the same book and to participated in book discussions. For more information about book discussions, online forums and a public presentation by Sebastian Junger, please visit the Cambridge READS website here.