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Operation Homecoming by Andrew Carroll
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Operation Homecoming

Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families

$20.99

Retail price: $27.95

Discount: 24%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Length 17 hours 6 minutes
Language English
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In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts organized a series of writing workshops led by prominent authors to encourage US troops and their families to record their experiences and reflections on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The result is this extraordinary volume of first-hand letters, poems, journals, memoirs, and e-mails from the men and women directly involved in battle and their families back home.

This uniquely personal addition to the long tradition of war literature covers the entire arc of a soldierā€™s journey, from those first experiences of combat, encounters with Iraqis and Afghans, and the humor and boredom of the daily grind, to the physical and emotional toll of battle, the struggle of loved ones back home to carry on, and finally the return and integration back into American life.

Andrew Carrollā€™sĀ books, War Letters and Letters of a Nation, were New York TimesĀ bestsellers. In 1998, he founded the Legacy Project, a national, all-volunteer effort to honor and remember our nationā€™s veterans by seeking out and saving their letters. He is editing this book on a pro bono basis. Carroll lives in Washington, DC.

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFileā€™s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Cardā€™s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Awardā€“winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.

David Birney is an American actor and director whose career performances include both contemporary and classical roles in theater, film and television.Ā He has recorded numerous audiobook bestsellers, including works by Dean Koontz, Paul Theroux, Annie Dillard, Thomas Kenneally, and Orson Scott Card. His reading of Julie Salomonā€™s The Christmas Tree was honored with the prestigious Audie Award and has also been the recipient of several AudioFile Earphone Awards.

Richard Brewer, a native Californian, has always been a lover of stories and storytelling. He has worked as a writer, actor, bookseller, story editor, book reviewer, audiobook narrator, and movie and television development executive. He is coeditor of the critically acclaimed Bruce Springsteen-inspired short story anthology Meeting Across the River.

Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and ā€œone of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.ā€ He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbertā€™s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weeklyā€™s Narrator of the Year.

Ā Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarkeā€™s Rendezvous with Rama.

Emily Janice Rankin is an actor, writer, and singer from North Carolina, now residing in Los Angeles. In addition to being a narrator, she has directed numerous audiobooks, including the 2007 Audie and Earphones Award winner Legacy of Ashes by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, and Them by Nathan McCall. Her own audiobook narration has won her four Earphones Awards.

Orson Scott Card, the author of the New York Times bestseller Enderā€™s Game, has won several Hugo and Nebula awards for his works of speculative fiction. His Ender novels are widely read by adults and younger readers and are increasingly used in schools. Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy, American-frontier fantasy, biblical novels, poetry, plays, and scripts.

Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her ā€œvelvet touchā€ as an actorā€™s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.

Harlan Ellison (1934ā€“2018) wrote and edited more than 120 books and more than 1,700 stories, essays, and articles, as well as dozens of screenplays and teleplays. He won the Hugo award nine times, the Nebula award three times, the Bram Stoker award six times (including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996), the Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers of America twice, the Georges MĆ©liĆØs Fantasy Film Award twice, and was awarded the Silver Pen for Journalism by PEN, the international writerā€™s union. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2006.

Robert Forster is an award-winning film and television actor best known for his Oscar-nominated supporting role as Max Cherry in Jackie Brown.

Kirby Heyborne is a musician, actor, and professional narrator. Noted for his work in teen and juvenile audio, he has garnered over twenty Earphones Awards. His audiobook credits include Jesse Kellermanā€™s The Genius, Cory Doctorowā€™s Little Brother, and George R. R. Martinā€™s Selections from Dreamsongs.

Stephen Hoye has worked as a professional actor in London and Los Angeles for more than thirty years. Trained at Boston University and the Guildhall in London, he has acted in television series and six feature films and has appeared in Londonā€™s West End. His audiobook narration has won him fifteen AudioFile Earphones Awards.

Arte Johnson is an award-winning narrator and an American comic actor who won an Emmy Award for his role in the television series Rowan & Martinā€™s Laugh-In. His audiobook narations have won two AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he placed as a finalist for the Audie Award for best narration in 2003 and 2007.

Stephen Lang's Broadway work includes Wait Until Dark, A Few Good Men, The Speed of Darkness and Death of a Salesman. His films include Last Exit to Brooklyn, Gettysburg, Gods and Generals, and Tombstone. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Actors Studio.

Rex Linn, a winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami. Besides numerous other television roles, he has had roles in Django Unchained, Trial by Fire, and other major films. He was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and earned a BA in radio, television, and film from Oklahoma State University.

Kathe Mazur has narrated many audiobooks, winning the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, being named a finalist for the Audie Award in 2013 and 2015, and winning several AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actress, she can be seen as DDA Hobbs on The Closer and in the upcoming Major Crimes. She has worked extensively in film, theater, and television, including appearances on Greyā€™s Anatomy, Private Practice, House, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, ER, Monk, and many others.

Kevin Baker is the author of one previous novel, Sometimes You See It Coming, and served as chief historical researcher for the recently published The American Century by Harold Evans. He is married and lives in New York City.

John Rubenstein won a Theater World Award, a Tony, and a Drama Desk Award for his performances in Pippin and Children of a Lesser God.

Mirron Willis has narrated over 200 audiobooks across various literary genres and has won several Earphone Awards for Excellence and is an Audie Award finalist and winner. Notable works include Ginny Gall by Charlie Smith, The Smokey Dalton Series by Kris Nelscott; My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte; The Long Fall (Booklist, Best of 2009) and others by Walter Mosley; Uncle Tom's Cabin, Elijah of Buxton, The Translator; and Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B Dubois. In three seasons at the Ensemble Theatre (Houston, Texas), Mirron appeared as JP in What I Learned in Paris, Malcolm X in The Meeting, Henry in Race, and as Countee Cullen in Knock Me a Kiss (2013 Giorgee Award for Best Leading Actor). Other roles include Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry VI Parts 2 & 3, and A Raisin in the Sun with the world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has also performed as guest narrator with the Houston Symphony. Film and TV guest appearances include Criminal Minds, Private Practice, The Exes, Monk, 24, Seinfeld, Cheers, The Parkers, Living Single, E.R., Star Trek, and Independence Day, among others. Mirron resides and records audiobooks on his family's historic ranch in East Texas.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr.Ā (1918ā€“2014) was born in New York City and trained at the Yale School of Drama. An actor on stage, film, and television, he was also a narrator, voice-over artist, director, and award-winning producer. He is best remembered for his role as investigators on the TV shows 77 Sunset Strip and The FBI.

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Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Donā€™t miss outā€”purchases support your local bookstore!

Shop now

Reviews

“This beautifully edited compilation of writings from modern warriors and their loved ones contains a wonderful range of voices and experience…This collection provides a truly multi-faceted and agenda-free look at the ongoing conflict from the Americans who lived it, and deserves a large audience.”

“Several readers share the narration, which gives each entry a unique tone…The stories are visceral, at times graphic. They are uniformly moving. Given that the war continues, some of the entries are almost poignant.”

“An incredibly wide range of opinions and emotions about US policy in the Middle East, the war on terrorism, and the duties and responsibilities of citizens and the military. In 100 pieces of poetry, essays, letters, e-mails, plays, and journal entries…[are the] intimate perspectives from the people on the frontlines.”

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