Brian Van Reet was born in Houston. Following the September 11 attacks, he dropped out of the University of Virginia and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in Iraq under stop-loss orders, achieved the rank of sergeant and was awarded a Bronze Star for valour. After an honourable discharge he studied at the University of Missouri and later the University of Texas. His stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Daily Beast and the Washington Post.
A fast-paced, hard-hitting account of eight weeks in the lives of a soldier and her captor forces us to reconsider the simplistic narratives spun by those in power.
