I'd Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them

Quotes

“Not only is Jesse Goolsby one of the very rare authors who writes with authoritative insight into the warfare of the twenty-first century, he does so with an even deeper insight into the universal human condition. Goolsby’s real subject, always, is the profound yearning for connection, for identity, that drives us all. He is a consummate artist, and the publication of I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them is a major literary event.” Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

“Long after the combatants and non-combatants alike have vanished from this earth, the afterlife of war is a book, war’s only survivor, and every true book about war cries out, ‘Stop,’ or at least, ‘Remember.’ I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them, Jesse Goolsby’s ambitious, multilayered, brutally honest debut novel, is such a book, an antidote to our nation’s disconnect from our misadventures overseas.” Bob Shacochis, National Book Award–winning author

“Why do we honor combat veterans? In his new novel, Air Force officer Jesse Goolsby asks that question through the stories of three veterans, their experiences in war, and their lives back at home. I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them is grounded in the wars of the last fifteen years, but Goolsby points out the action takes place as much in the private lives the men lead in America as it does on the battlefield…‘Those who have seen combat—it’s such a difficult thing …[he says] ‘to work through and process. But I think at the core of it, we just want a conversation about what our country asks of us. And not just what our country asks of our service members, but what it asks of their families, of their friends, and of their communities.’” NPR

“Goolsby expertly renders his characters, bringing their struggles to life.” Publishers Weekly

“Traveling back and forth through time, Goolsby explores the challenges these men face before, during, and after their military tours, portraying their stresses vividly and palpably.” Booklist

“This bracing, riveting debut opens in Afghanistan, and actions there shadow the lives of Goolsby’s characters. But it’s the accidents, debts, and desires of the home front that continue to wreak havoc as war memories turn into just that—memories—and soldiers mired in the past realize that tackling the future may be their true struggle after all.” Siobhan Fallon, actress, and author of You Know When the Men Are Gone

Awards

• Bustle Pick
• Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize