Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

Matti Friedman’s powerful memoir takes readers into the heart of Israeli life and the complexities of its conflicts. Reflecting on his experiences as a soldier, Friedman sheds light on the pain, joy, and determination that shape Israel’s story.

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War by Matti Friedman

It was just one small hilltop in a small, unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that are still felt worldwide today. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; flowers was the military code word for “casualties.” Award-winning writer Matti Friedman re-creates the harrowing experience of a band of young Israeli soldiers charged with holding this remote outpost, a task that would change them forever, wound the country in ways large and small, and foreshadow the unwinnable conflicts the United States would soon confront in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Pumpkinflowers is a reckoning by one of those young soldiers now grown into a remarkable writer. Part memoir, part reportage, part history, Friedman’s powerful narrative captures the birth of today’s chaotic Middle East and the rise of a twenty-first-century type of war in which there is never a clear victor and media images can be as important as the battle itself.

Raw and beautifully rendered, Pumpkinflowers will take its place among classic war narratives by George Orwell, Philip Caputo, and Tim O’Brien. It is an unflinching look at the way we conduct war today.

WHY WE LOVE THIS BOOK

“If you want to get a feel for the true dynamics of being an Israeli—the pain as well as the joy, the frustration of facing implacable foes and the honesty to discuss mistakes and seek to learn—then Pumpkinflowers is a good place to start. Matti Friedman speaks from experience and shares the wisdom he gained from thinking hard about the realities of his country’s predicament. Read it without preconceptions, because this is a book designed to make you think.”

Rabbi Michael Panitz 
Temple Israel 

 

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