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The Yellow Birds

A Novel

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The Yellow Birds

By: Kevin Powers
Narrated by: Holter Graham
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About this listen

 WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2012

WINNER OF THE HEMINGWAY/PEN AWARD 2012

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

AN AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK: BEST BOOKS OF 2012

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

AN INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR

A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR

AN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR

A SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

A SUNDAY HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR

AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

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.

With THE YELLOW BIRDS, poet and veteran Kevin Powers has composed an unforgettable account of friendship and loss. It vividly captures the desperation and brutality of war, and its terrible after-effects. But it is also a story of love, of great courage, and of extraordinary human survival.

Written with profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is one of the most haunting, true and powerful novels of our time.


'THE YELLOW BIRDS is the All Quiet on the Western Front of America's Arab Wars.'
(Tom Wolfe, author of The Bonfire of the Vanities )

'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 )

'Inexplicably beautiful'.
(Ann Patchett, Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder)

(P)2012 Hachette Audio©2012 Kevin Powers Genre Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military Fiction

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Critic reviews

Extraordinary . . . beautifully accomplished. The mark of an artist of the first order . . . a must-read book.
A masterpiece . . . a classic.
A stunning achievement - visceral [and] poignant.
'Remarkable for its intensity of both feeling and expression. In this book about death, every line is a defiant assertion of the power of beauty to revivify, whether beauty shows itself in nature or (later) in art.
The best book I have read this year
A wonderful, powerful novel that moves and terrifies.
Harrowing, inexplicably beautiful, and utterly, urgently necessary
An extraordinary novel . . . remarkable . . . stands with Tim O'Brien's enduring Vietnam book, The Things They Carried, as a classic of contemporary war fiction . . . brilliantly observed and deeply affecting.
A stunning read . . . beautiful [and] devastating
'Kevin Powers has conjured a poetic and devastating account of war's effect on the individual.'
Reaffirms the power of fiction to tell the truth about the unspeakable ... a superb literary achievement. I urge everyone to read it.
Written with an intensity which is deeply compelling
In the great tradition of Hemingway and Tim O'Brien, Kevin Powers's exquisitely written The Yellow Birds draws us in to the combat zones of Iraq: the watch, the wait ("Stay alive, Stay alert"), the bungle, the slaughter and the irreparable aftermath.
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
One of those books that knocks your perceptions into new alignment permanently
The Yellow Birds is the All Quiet on the Western Front of America's Arab Wars
Thus far the definitive novel of our long wars in the Middle East; this book is certain to be read and taught for generations to come.
Kevin Powers' poetic, grievously sad debut novel captures one young man's experience of the war in Iraq . . . Powers is clear-eyed and dolorous, observing the damage done, but alive to the beauty of the landscape, and the details that cement friendship in a world dominated by violence and fear
Extraordinarily well-written . . . brilliant . . . he's just a really, really beautiful writer . . . everyone will be reading it
Page after page yields unforgettable images . . . undeniably, this is an important novel by a formidable talent.
A novel about the war in Iraq might not usually top your reading list, but make an exception for this one . . . it's an intense, brutal and yet lyrical tale . . . Novelists from Ann Pratchett to Colm Toibin have praised its harrowing beauty. It's an elegant literary treat.
All stars
Most relevant
Cannot really use the word 'enjoyable for this' - too harrowing. ..but certainly gripping and thought provoking An unembroidered account of young men at war in a conflict they barely understand in a country which, as the saying goes, they probably couldn't find on a map

should be compulsory listening for all politicians

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The experiences of people whose life experiences approach the abyss from which there is no escape after falling, can appreciate the levels of alienation the author describes. After escaping the destruction this soldier is nevertheless aware of how profoundly he (or she) their life has been fully ruined, how their innocence had been so destroyed and their souls seared, which could only have happened because they survived. We know what we know, no matter how fiercely we tried to resist being polluted. It is only by surrendering that we could hope to survive. But this entails no loss of honour, no one can escape except by dying young, as the old adage correctly claims. Nothing more real or satisfying than fraternity, shared agony and peaceful reticence could exist in life. This disappears with the individual at death and there is no trace. This book brilliantly explains for the uninitiated this heady addictive phenomenon - the old soldier- a wonderful feat of authorship!

Only a soldier fully gets this!

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If you could sum up The Yellow Birds in three words, what would they be?

Moving. harrowing, authentic.

What did you like best about this story?

Powers is a veteran of the war he writes so well about. He really gets across the fear, fatigue and terror of combat. Its feels authentic because we know he was there on the ground.

Have you listened to any of Holter Graham’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes I've listened to a few of Holter Graham's readings of Stephen King's books.They were fantastic listens, especially Christine. He's a great narrator and this book compares with the King books.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes quite easily. It draws you in. The books starts with a combat scene and your hooked! It then flicks between the characters meet at basic training, the events in the war, to the narrator coping with the aftermath in the US.

Any additional comments?

A great read! It shows the cost of rich men's wars, on the poor boy's who get to fight them.

Each War has a great novel is this the Gulf War's?

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Eloquently written and narrated... this is a story of war’s deep cuts into being human...

A young American soldier and his relationships with friends, the military, and the ‘other’ in Iraq are laid bare. Beautifully written - crude evocative language - maps the destructiveness of this conflict on the behaviour and psyches of those engaged. We are drawn into the slow unraveling of a US soldier’s ability to cope with a futile war, the intensity of loyalties that lead to bizarre but credible behaviour, the mechanisms deployed to manage sanity in an insane situation, and the grief of a mother who just wants to know what happened...

We do not learn much about ‘why the war?’ ... but we learn a lot about ‘what the war? ... and it is not pretty.

An impressive short, but deep, anti-war book...

Destructivess of war writ large

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I had no real idea what to expect from this book, so I was very pleased when, 5 minutes into it, I found myself gripped, both by the story and it's telling. Some of the descriptive passages are breath taking in their terrible beauty.
The protagonist tells his tale with such brutal honesty that you are forced to believe that every word of this story is the absolute truth, that it is more of a confession without the hope of redemption. This draws you into the story to such a degree that it is very difficult to leave the tale until it is over. I started listening to this story on a short drive in the car, returned home and sat listening until the end, spell bound.
This is not to say that this is an enjoyable story, it is a glimpse into the horror of war and it's terrible aftermath. In the preface to slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut recalls promising a friend's wife that his book would not glorify war. In his own way, Kevin Powers achieves the same. Highly recommended.

Powerful and beautifully written

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