Bring Out the Dog: Stories

Bring Out the Dog: Stories

â€œA near-miraculous, brilliant debut.â€â€”George Saunders, Man Booker Prizeâ€“winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo

â€œIn one exquisitely crafted story after the next, Will Mackin maps the surreal psychological terrain of soldiers in a perpetual war.â€â€”Phil Klay, National Book Awardâ€“winning author of Redeployment

LONGLISTED FOR THEÂ PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION

The eleven stories in Will Mackinâ€™s mesmerizing debut collection draw from his many deployments with a special operations task force in Iraq and Afghanistan. They began as notes he jotted on the inside of his forearm in grease pencil and, later, as bullet points on the torn-off flap of an MRE kit. Whenever possible he incorporated those notes into his journals. Years later, he used those journals to write this book.

Together, the stories inÂ Bring Out the Dog offer a remarkable portrait of the absurdity and poetry that define life in the most elite, clandestine circles of modern warfare. It is a world of intense bonds, ancient credos, and surprising compassionâ€”of success, failure, and their elusive definitions. Moving between settings at home and abroad, in vivid language that reflects the wonder and discontent of war, Mackin draws the reader into a series of surreal, unsettling, and deeply human episodes:Â In â€œCrossing the River No Name,â€ a close call suggests that miracles do exist, even if they are in brutally short supply; in â€œGreat Circle Route Westward Through Perpetual Night,â€ the death of the teamâ€™s beloved dog plunges them into a different kind of grief; in â€œKattekoppen,â€ a man struggles to reconcile his commitments as a father and his commitments as a soldier; and in â€œBakerâ€™s Strong Point,â€ a man whose job it is to pull things together struggles with a loss of control.

Told without a trace of false bravado and with a keen, Barry Hannahâ€“like sense of the absurd, Bring Out the Dog manages to capture the tragedy and heroism, the degradation and exultation, in the smallest details of war.

Praise for Bring Out the Dog

â€œGood stories that deal with war must deal with the extremes of war: heroic altruism and murderous selfishness, piercing beauty and disgusting ugliness. Mackin hits all the notes and all the notes sound true. These stories are right at the top with the best Iâ€™ve ever read.â€â€”Karl Marlantes, New York Times bestselling author of Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
Country USA
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2018-03-06
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812995640

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2018-03-06
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812995640

Bring Out the Dog: Stories

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