Spider Spiedel thought he could keep his head down and survive Vietnam. That illusion shattered with the Tet Offensive.
Wounded and sent home, Spider faces a new kind of battle: a grim medical diagnosis and a country that no longer feels familiar. While he fought overseas, his girlfriend Beverly turned to the counterculture, protesting the very war that nearly killed him.
In 1968, Nebula and Hugo Award winner Joe Haldeman draws from personal experience to craft a powerful, deeply human portrait of a soldier, a nation, and a generation torn in two. It’s not just a war story—it’s a coming-of-age in a time of upheaval, where survival means redefining what it means to fight.
Sometimes, the hardest part of war is coming home.
