Matti Friedman is a former Jerusalem bureau reporter for the Associated Press and the 2014 winner of the coveted Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for his first book, The Aleppo Codex. He returns with Pumpkinflowers, the true story of a small group of Israeli soldiers – including himself – charged with securing a hilltop in hostile territory in Lebanon. His reflections on that event shed light on the heart of conflict in the Middle East. Friedman is joined by the New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch, author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, and his in-depth account of Rwanda genocide, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.
"Pumpkinflowers is a stunning achievement … evocative, emotionally wrenching and yet clear-eyed and dispassionate, Matti Friedman’s haunting war memoir reminds one of Michael Herr’s unforgettable Vietnam memoir, Dispatches. It too is destined to become a classic text on the absurdities of war."
– Kai Bird, Pulitzer-prize winning biographer
Matti Friedman is a former Jerusalem bureau reporter for the Associated Press and the 2014 winner of the coveted Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for his first book, The Aleppo Codex. He returns with Pumpkinflowers, the true story of a small group of Israeli soldiers – including himself – charged with securing a hilltop in hostile territory in Lebanon. His reflections on that event shed light on the heart of conflict in the Middle East. Friedman is joined by the New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch, author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, and his in-depth account of Rwanda genocide, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.
"Pumpkinflowers is a stunning achievement … evocative, emotionally wrenching and yet clear-eyed and dispassionate, Matti Friedman’s haunting war memoir reminds one of Michael Herr’s unforgettable Vietnam memoir, Dispatches. It too is destined to become a classic text on the absurdities of war."
– Kai Bird, Pulitzer-prize winning biographer
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