Purple Heart

Patricia McCormick writes a compelling story about the moral ambiguities of war. Matt Duffy is an 18-year-old soldier who is wrestling with memory loss as he tries to make sense of the events that landed him in the hospital and earned him the Purple Heart. James Colby tells the story with a direct, nonjudgmental delivery. Colby conveys Matt's frustration with the confusion and language difficulties that accompany his traumatic brain injury and believably depicts how he grasps for simple words like "headache'' by giving complex definitions. The story does not delve into political issues but focuses on the cost of war to our common humanity. Chapters are not identified, but pauses that create breaks seem longer than they should be. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 24, 2009
In this suspenseful psychological thriller, 18-year-old Matt Duffy, a private with memory problems following a traumatic brain injury, receives the Purple Heart in Iraq and gradually unravels the contradictory events that led to the honor. McCormick (Sold
) sharply draws the culture of the Green Zone hospital, the camaraderie of the enlisted men and (via phone calls and letters) the gulf between life at home versus on the front. Friendship, bravado and juvenile antics counteract the soldiers' guilt, paranoia and unease around Iraqis (“ 'Enemy' was the official term. 'Insurgents' was okay, too. Everybody called them hajis, though”). Strong characters heighten the drama, especially likable Matt, but also the sympathetic hospital psychiatrist who balances complicated allegiances and legal obligations, and flinty Charlene, the sole female member of Matt's squad. As Matt remembers more and more, tension builds and he becomes confused about interpretations of the truth (and when to reveal them) within the chain of command. McCormick raises moral questions without judgment and will have readers examining not only this conflict but the nature of heroism and war. Ages 12–up.