“The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers – The Golden Nightmare

By itself, the Middle East is home to some of the most breathtaking pieces of scenery ever, ranging from cold and snowy mountains all the way to vast terrains and dunes made golden by the sun’s rays shining off grains of sand. 

Unfortunately, as is made amply obvious in The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, the Middle East is home to things much deadlier than its scenery, with the whole war thing going on. In the novel we follow the journey of two recruits which have been deployed as part of the force tasked with taking over the city of Al Tafar, Iraq.

The novel doesn't really take that long to set up the action, and it begins fairly early with battles against partisans and insurgents inside the city. However, as time goes on and one, it becomes increasingly clear that bullets really aren’t their worst enemy; the heat, the wait, and the constant mental pressure seems to be what they have to worry about.

Living in a time and place where every second could be your last does take an important toll on one’s psyche. Eventually, the two recruits start to see kind of hazy, in the sense that all of their limits and morals become increasingly blurred. One of the two recruits, Murphy, reacts to it all by detaching himself in every possible way from the world around him, while the other one, Bartle, transforms into someone he never even dreamt he would become.

While it is relatively common for authors to concentrate on the individual aspect of war, I have to say that in this case it’s quite well done, better than in most books that’s for sure. As much as the novel is about the two recruits, it feels as if Kevin Powers is only using them as a vehicle to deliver his message… that regardless of what its fought for, war only leaves behind death and desolation. 

Kevin uses these two characters to explore the different psychological effects warfare has on people, how it makes them behave, and more importantly, how it gives them reason to go through with inhumane, borderline psychopathic actions. 

If you are the kind of reader who likes to get deep into a character’s shoes, get sucked into a story and imagine yourself being completely there, then without a doubt you will like this book. 

It will give you stomach butterflies, send shivers down your spine on more than one occasion, perhaps even having you shed a tear or two. It’s really a dark, gritty and violent rollercoaster ride, contrasted by the majestic and seemingly never-ending expanse of golden sand.

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Kevin Powers Kevin Powers is an American Iraq War veteran, poet and fiction author who holds a Bachelor's degree in English, obtained from the Virginia Commonwealth University. His first book, The Yellow Birds, drew on many of his wartime experiences and earned him multiple awards, including the 2012 Guardian First Book Award, the 2012 National Book Award, and the 2013 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.