Matterhorn

Written by a highly decorated Vietnam soldier over a thirty-five-year period, it is a vast and compelling story of men in conflict.

Matterhorn is an epic war story in the vein of James Jones's The Thin Red Line and Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead. It is intense, strong, and captivating. The classic tale tells of Waino Mellas, a young Marine lieutenant, and his fellow soldiers in Bravo Company, who are thrust into the Vietnam mountains as young lads and must battle their way up to become men. on addition to the North Vietnamese, other obstacles on their path include mud and monsoon rain, tigers and leeches, illness, and starvation. It turns out that the barriers they encounter with one another—racial hostility, conflicting goals, and cunning senior officers—are almost as intimidating. However, the Marines are thrown into the unadulterated and overwhelming dread of battle when the company discovers that a sizable enemy regiment has encircled and outnumbered them. The experience will change them forever.

A highly decorated Vietnam soldier wrote Matterhorn, a vivid and engrossing book about what it's like to be a young man at war, over the period of thirty years. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.

Karl Marlantes was a Marine in Vietnam who received many decorations for his gallantry, including the Navy Cross, Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He was a Yale University graduate and an Oxford University Rhodes Scholar. It's his first book. In rural Washington State, he lives.