Shadow of the Sword

August 1, 2009
This superior addition to the literature on the Iraq War is an exceptionally vivid account of combat and its aftermath. Workman won the Navy Cross in a deadly room-to-room battle in Fallujah and came home with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. With Brunings knowledgeable help, he provides a harrowing level of detail about the combat, which eventually ended with calling in an air strike on the Iraqi stronghold. Equally harrowing are the details of how PTSD turned Workman into an abusive spouse of his pregnant wife. Both Workman and the reader find some closure by the end, for the therapy Workman undertook was successful, and he went on to help other victims, traveling widely to do so, and to dote on his infant son. Workmans testimony gives hope that those suffering the nightmare of PTSD can free themselves sufficently to avoid becoming additional casualties of the current war.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)