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Title details for Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer - Available

Where Men Win Glory

The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

by Jon Krakauer
Scott Brick
Audiobook
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The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.
Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’ s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably” been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.
In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell” —and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers.
Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 15, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415956755
      • File size: 378651 KB
      • Duration: 13:08:51

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1300
    • Text Difficulty: 10-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Part of what makes Scott Brick such a gifted narrator is his ability to move smoothly from gritty or somber subject matter to empathy with the characters' emotional highs and lows. All of Brick's talent is on display here. Krakauer (INTO THIN AIR) brings us not only a heartfelt biography of Pat Tillman, the Arizona football player who was killed by friendly fire in the mountains of Afghanistan; the story of this often-complicated young man is also an overview of a time in our country's history that has cost us so much. Through Krakauer's superb writing and Brick's thoughtful delivery, we can't help but form an attachment to this young man whose death became a national tragedy. Deeply curious and emotional, a daredevil and an athlete, Tillman might very well have kept his friends up late talking about this book. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1300
  • Text Difficulty:10-12

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