If I Die in a Combat Zone. Tim O’Brien

      TIM O’BRIEN

       If I Die in a Combat Zone

       Copyright

      HarperPress An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition published in 2006

      Published by Flamingo in 1995

      and reprinted five times Previously published in paperback by Paladin 1989 and by Grafton Books 1980 Reprinted twice First published in Great Britain by Calder and Boyars Ltd 1973

      Copyright © Tim O’Brien 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973

      PS Section © Travis Elborough 2006

      PS ™ is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      Tim O’Brien asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      Portions of this book appeared inPlayboy, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Tribune and Worthington Daily Globe

      Excerpts from ‘Laches’ from The Dialogues of Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett © Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1953. Used by permission of the publisher.

      Excerpt from ‘The Waste Land’ from Collected Poems 1909–62 by T.S. Eliot. Used by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc and Faber & Faber.

      Lines from ‘Homeward Bound’ by Paul Simon

      © 1966 by Paul Simon. Used by permission of Charing Cross Music, Inc.

      Excerpt from ‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberly – IV’ from Personae by Ezra Pound. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation and Faber & Faber Ltd.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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      Source ISBN: 9780007204977

      Ebook Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN 9780007381760 Version: 2015-07-02

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Dedication

       For my family

      Names and physical characteristics

      of persons depicted in this book have been changed.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

1 Days

2 Pro Patria

3 Beginning

4 Nights

5 Under the Mountain

6 Escape

       7 Arrival

       8 Alpha Company

       9 Ambush

       10 The Man at the Well

       11 Assault

       12 Mori

       13 My Lai in May

       14 Step Lightly

       15 Centurion

       16 Wise Endurance

       17 July

       18 The Lagoon

       19 Dulce et Decorum

       20 Another War

       21 Hearts and Minds

       22 Courage Is a Certain Kind of Preserving

       23 Don’t I Know You?

       Keep Reading

       P.S. Ideas, Interviews & Features …

       About the author

       Relying on Memory and Imagination: Tim O’Brien talks to Travis Elborough

       About the book

       What the Papers Said

       Box Me Up and Send Me Home: A Timeline