SLCL Authors at the J Presents Novelist and War Correspondent Elliot Ackerman

National Book Award-nominated novelist Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. “The Fifth Act” is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war’s long progression.

Books available for purchase from Left Bank Books.