Redeployment Background

Phil Klay is an American writer who was raised in New York, U.S.A and graduated from Dartmouth College. He served as a veteran of the U.S Marine Corps and a Public Affairs officer in the Iraq war (2007-2008). His service in Iraq gave him the idea of the book, Redeployment. Klay said about his goal of his book: "what I really want — and I think what a lot of veterans want — is a sense of serious engagement with the wars, because it's important, because it matters, because lives are at stake, and it's something we did as a nation. That's something that deserves to be thought about very seriously and very honestly...". He wanted to get the readers get a closer look at the soldiers' life in the war and understand and live these soldiers' miserable lives at war. Phil Klay basically wrote his experience in the Iraqi and Afghanistan war front in a collection of short stories.

Redeployment is Phil Klay's first published novel; it won many awards, including New York Times' best-selling short story collection. It also won the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s James Webb award, the National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Award, the American Library Association’s W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, the Chautauqua Prize, and the Warwick Prize, and was short listed for the Frank O’Connor Prize. Not only did Redeployment receive many awards, but it was also mentioned in several magazines.

Published on March 14, 2014, the novel received many positive feedbacks from credible sites and famous authors. Dexter Filkins from the New York Times said: "Redeployment is hilarious, biting, whipsawing, and sad. It's the best thing written so far on what the war did to people's souls". Vogue wrote, "Redeployment feels destined to become part of the canon of 'realistic' war fiction that has been written by veterans and civilians alike". It received a 4 out of 5 rating in Goodreads.