A Soldier’s Son

Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes and Noble | Annie Bloom’s

Read what Jack has to say about writing this novel on his Q&A page.

This new project from Jack Estes is a novel adapted from his award-winning screenplay of the same name. This screenplay took First Place in 2006 out of 1500 entries at FilmMakers International Screen writing Contest, top ten at Script Shark and First Place at Willamette Writers Conference.

A Soldier’s Son is the powerful and redeeming story of a father’s haunting memories of war, and his desperate attempt to save his son.

“Last night when the moon was gone and the neighborhood quiet, I grabbed my coat and walked down the hill toward Wilderness Park. With me was my squad of young Marines, dead and wounded still living in my memory. The air was wet and cool as they followed me down the block, gliding under streetlights and sliding past parked cars. At the bottom of the hill, we turned into the thick, dark woods.”

Reviews

“Estes skillfully presents the effect of war on familiies both in the moment and decades later. His characters are rich and complex. Battle scenes are vividly drawn, keeping the reader caught up in the action. A complex novel of the past and future, fathers and sons, and war and redemption, and the devastating impact of large-scale violence on both the perpetrators and the victims.” – Kirkus Review (read full review)

“Sometimes we forget that there is only one generation between Vietnam and Iraq. That some of the boys who survived the first, lived on to have sons sent into a new horrific kind of warfare. When a middle-aged father braves the battlefield of Iraq to save his son, it is not just an act of courage, but an act of great love… Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a talented writer survive war with the skill to write about it for all of us to understand his experiences and war itself. And sometimes a writer is gifted enough to transform his hell into art. Jack Estes is one of these, now with an unforgettable, powerful book about war and about what it is to be a father.” – Cynthia Whitcomb, two-time Emmy Awards nominee

“Jack Estes is a master at capturing the human costs of war, from the battlefield to the front rooms of America. As riveting as it is lyrical, A Soldier’s Son will not be forgotten.” – Karen Karbo, award-winning author of The Stuff of Life.

“In his beautifully written novel, A Soldier’s Son, Jack Estes, a Vietnam veteran, brings an authenticity and emotional intensity to the page. The result is a page turner.” – Larry Colton, past nominee for the Pullitzer Prize for Counting Coup.

“Jack Estes knows combat and its effects on the families of those who returned from it…and he knows how to write about both with such clarity and emotional intensity that you will keep turning pages far too late into the night. All veterans and their loved ones should read this novel of a father’s love, loss, and personal courage, both at home and at war.” – Karl Marlantes, author of the Vietnam epic novel Matterhorn