New York, NY: Ecco (2012)

First Edition. Signed.

Fine in dust jacket.

From the PEN/Hemingway award-winning and critically acclaimed author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara comes a razor sharp satire that is “the Catch-22 of the Iraq war” ( Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn)

“Ben Fountain’s Halftime is as close to the Great American Novel as anyone is likely to come these days—an extraordinary work that captures and releases the unquiet spirit of our age, and will probably be remembered as one of the important books of this decade.”—Madison Smartt Bell

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at “the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal—three minutes and forty-three seconds of intensive warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew—has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America’s most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush Administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide “Victory Tour ” to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the Halftime Show alongside the superstar pop group, Destiny’s Child.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Star-winning hero of Al-Ansakar, a nineteen-year-old Texas native named Specialist William Lynn. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and “support our troops” bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboy’s hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of battle. Between these faces Billy sees those of his family, his worried sisters and broken father, and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy’s mind and died in his arms at Al-Ansakar.

Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers in arms—soldiers both dead and alive. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.