David Finkel Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

David Finkel is a well known writer and journalist from the United States, who is popular for writing military fiction, war, nonfiction, and historical novels. He is known for his brave reporting work in the war-trodden countries. Author Finkel is particularly famous for writing the books, Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers. In addition to his writing work, he is also employed at The Washington Post as a staff writer. Finkel is also the leader of the national level reporting team of Washington Post. Author Finkel has received the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 while working for the Post for his explanatory reporting in a story series based on Yemen’s democracy efforts funded by the U.S. In 2017, he became Post’s countrywide enterprise editor. Finkel has even worked in the division of foreign staff of the Post. He became a MacArthur Fellow in 2012. In Good Soldiers, author Finkel has described the period of time he had spent in Baghdad in 2007. He was tasked as an embedded journalist with the 2nd Battalion in the 16th Infantry Regiment of Fourth Infantry-Brigade-Combat Team, First Infantry Division. This team is also called as the 2-16 Rangers and was involved in stabilizing a region in Baghdad.

Author Finkel covered this whole operation as a reporter and wrote all his experiences in the book. In a chat log of Adrian Lamo with Chelsea Manning, it was stated that author Finkel possessed a video of the reporting that was released by WikiLeaks as ‘Collatoral Murder’. However, there was no official release of the video. Author Finkel never disclosed publicly that he had any such video. In a webchat post on washingtonpost.com, author Finkel has stated that he based the book’s account on several unclassified sources. He did not give any details, he said that the best information source of the account was him being present in Iraq at the time of the operation. There was a hearing held in 2013 to get the truth about how Finkel came up with the description of the events with such accuracy. The hearing involved Chelsea Manning. Author Finkel was born on October 28, 1955 as David Louis Finkel. He obtained his bachelors degree from the Florida University in 1977 in the field of broadcasting. As of today, he resides in Springfield, Maryland along with his beloved wife and a couple of daughters.

In the list of prestigious awards won by him, there is the Lifestyle Journalism Prize, Robert Kennedy Award, J Anthony Lucas Prize, National Critics Award, etc. Author Finkel is very grateful to his fans, who have supported him throughout his career by liking his works and appreciating his stories. He hopes that they will continue to support him in the future as well. Over the years of his career, author Finkel has managed to develop a large fan following for himself. He wishes to continue writing many more interesting novels in the coming years and establish himself among the prominent authors. Many critics and fellow writers have liked the books and stories of Finkel and have given many positive reviews for them on various social media platforms as well as in numerous literary journals. All of this has boosted Finkel’s confidence to a greater extent and has motivated him to keep writing exciting books in the days to come.

A successful book penned by author David Finkel is entitled ‘The Good Soldiers’. It was released by the Sarah Crichton publication in the year 2009. This nonfiction books is based on the troop surge in Baghdad in 2007 and chronicles around the 2-16 Rangers’ deployment. Lieutenant Col. Ralph Kauzlarich was the commander of the Battalion that laid the surge for stabilizing the situation in Iraq’s capital at that time. The story moves forward by following the experiences of Ralph Kauzlarich as he understands the realities of war in a better way and loses his fellow soldiers for the very first time. Author Finkel has given a detailed description of this mission as he had witnessed everything first hand. He was sent with the Battalion to cover the mission and experienced the war situation at the personal level. Finkel even realized the how much war affects the ones engaging it. This novel went on to win the ALA Alex prize in 2010. It was highly appreciated by numerous readers from across the globe and succeeded in reaching out to a vast number of audiences in all the countries of its publication. Many fellow authors and critics praised author Finkel for his dedicated efforts in describing the real war situation. They also liked the accounts he mentioned to depict the hardships faced by the soldiers in completing the mission. Lt. Col. Kauzlarich’s experiences of the tough war is what helped take the story forward and readers seemed to enjoy it very much.

Another popular book written by the author is known as ‘Thank You For Your Service’. It was published by the Bond Street publishing company in 2013. This novel’s plot describes the tale of some young men who served in war and sustained physical and mental injuries. After the war gets over, the men try very hard to adjust themselves to their normal life. They wonder how they are going to move ahead in life after experiencing, seeing, and doing many terrible things that nobody should ever go through. While reading the book, it feels very heartbreaking to learn that many of the young men who fought in the war are left broken both mentally and physically. And because of this, their relationships and families suffer badly. Some of the characters in the novel appear as real leaders, decent and brave men.

A few of them end up acquiring PTSD and go on to suffer from depression, anger, and anxiety issues. But again, they show the same determination that they showed in war to defeat their medical problems and become well. This book is seen as a hard hitting war tale and is highly recommended for all the lovers of war stories. It depicts the war’s horrors at individual level quite well. Just like the last book, this book too was praised and appreciated by the audiences. They admired the emotional aspects of the story and seemed to connect with it very well. Author Finkel received a huge support for his determination in coming up with this story. His fame increased immensely after the successful release of this novel.