Book description
Nineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is home from war. Back in Texas, he has
become a national celebrity. A Fox News crew filmed Billy and the rest
of Bravo squad defeating Iraqi insurgents in a ferocious firefight. Now
Billy is a decorated soldier and Bravo's three minutes of extreme
bravery under fire is a YouTube sensation. Seizing on this PR gift, the
Bush administration has sent the surviving members of Bravo on a
nationwide 'Victory Tour' to reassure the folks at home. Today, during
the final hours of the tour, they arrive at Texas Stadium, guests of
honour as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Chicago Bears in a nationally
broadcast Thanksgiving Day game. The story follows Billy and his fellow
Bravos through a climactic afternoon, as they mix with the rich and
powerful, endure the politics and affections of their fellow citizens,
aspire to sex and marriage with the famous Cowboys cheerleaders, share
centre stage with Destiny's Child during the halftime extravaganza and
attempt to close a movie deal with the help of a veteran Hollywood
producer. They will learn hard truths about love and death, family and
friendship, duty and honour. Tomorrow, they must go back to war. Tender
and full of humanity, this is a wickedly funny and urgent novel about a
young man, the citizens who sent him to war, the family he left behind
and the era that let it happen. In Billy Lynn, Ben Fountain has created
a new American hero for our times. As close to the Great American
Novel as anyone is likely to come these days - an extraordinary work
that captures and releases the unquiet spirit of our age, and will
probably be remembered as one of the important books of this decade
Ben Fountain is the author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara. He has
received the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award
for Fiction, a Whiting Writers Award, an O. Henry Prize, two Pushcart
Prizes, and two Texas Institute of Letters Short Story Awards, among
other honours and awards. His fiction has been published in Harper's,
The Paris Review, Zoetrope: All-Story and Stories from the South: The
Year's Best. Join the discussion on Twitter #BillyLynn
