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The Deserter's Tale

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Overview

"Destined to become part of the literature of the Iraq war . . . Key's clear voice rings out . . . with anguish and a frankness that invests the book with quiet eloquence. . . . a substantial contribution to history." --Los Angeles Times

Now in paperback, The Deserter's Tale is the first memoir from a soldier who deserted from the war in Iraq, and a vivid and damning indictment of the American military campaign.

In spring 2003, young Oklahoman Joshua Key was sent to Ramadi as part of a combat engineer company. The war he found himself participating in was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. Key saw Iraqi civilians beaten, shot, and killed, or maimed for little or no provocation. After seven months in Iraq, Key was home on leave and knew he could not return. So he took his family and went underground in the United States, finally seeking asylum in Canada after fourteen months in hiding.

Detailing the grinding horrors of life as part of an occupying force, The Deserter's Tale is the story of a conservative-minded family man and patriot who went to war believing unquestioningly in his government's commitment to integrity and justice, and how what he saw in Iraq transformed him into someone who could no longer serve his country.

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Author Information

Bio of Joshua Key

JOSHUA KEY was raised in Guthrie, Oklahoma. This is his first book.

Bio of Lawrence Hill

Lawrence Hill is the author of the novels Any Known Blood and Some Great Thing, and the non-fiction work Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. He also co-authored, with Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. He lives in Burlington, Ontario.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Filesize

649.54 KB

Number of Pages

256

eBook ISBN

9781555846633

Excerpt from: The Deserter's Tale by Joshua Key

As we charged into the house, women were staggering out of their rooms. Some squad mates grabbed them and held them at gunpoint, and the rest of us raced through the house. We found seven women in the house, but not a single male. The guys in my squad couldn't find a thing--no weapons, nothing--and it seemed that the more incapable they were of locating contraband the more destructive they became. They smashed dressers, ripped mattresses, threw shelves to the floor--until someone had the bright idea that weapons were likely hidden under the floor. Out came the pickaxes. When it was obvious there was nothing in the house, we went outside.

I found another soldier holding a woman at gunpoint outside. "What are you doing this for?" she screamed. "We have done nothing to you. You Americans are ruthless!"

Hayes finally lost it. Using the stock of his M-16, he slammed her right in the face. Down she went, face in the dirt.

Then something happened that I dream about to this day. All the women were led back inside the house, and our entire platoon was ordered to stand guard around it. Four U.S. military men who outranked us--I don't know who they were--went into the house. They closed the doors.

We stood guard outside that house for hours, it seemed. For all that time, the women screamed.