In the tradition of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Brian O’Hare’s Surrender is a rich collection of coming-of-age stories, a journey into the heart of the American hero myth, from the Friday night football fields of Western Pennsylvania to a battalion of Marines in the Persian Gulf and beyond. But what happens when the crowds stop cheering and the welcome home parades are over? Guilt, fear, and brutality collide with love and acceptance as a diverse cast of characters struggle to reconcile mythology with reality, and to find meaning in a uniquely American chaos.In bittersweet stories with surprising humor, the characters grapple with the choices they’ve made and a country they no longer understand. Written in spare and unsentimental prose, yet with a startling emotional punch, these stories, and the unforgettable characters who tell them, will live long in the reader’s imagination.

“Surrender is written in delightful, incisive prose bursting with humanity. It is deeply observed and emotionally powerful, sharp on both the cultural mores of young men and on the deeper consequences of what happens when that mixes with American military power. And each story boasts richly imagined characters that live on in the mind long after you’ve finished reading”—Phil Klay, author of Redeployment, winner of the National Book Award