The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

A powerful book about a young soldier returning from Afghanistan. This book is difficult to read as it is easy to feel real empathy with the main character. The novel does not get drawn into moral or ethical debate about the war, but contains simple stories and human tragedies which gives the book it's great impact. The writing is simple but effective and the novel's straightforward narrative works very well for this sort of book. Worth reading and likely to stay with you for a long time.