‘His understanding of war is so profound that one feels like secrets have been revealed – truths – information that one day may be necessary for our survival’ SEBASTIAN JUNGER, author of WAR and TRIBE
How and why did American involvement in Afghanistan end in tragedy?
Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had, for years, worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story’s tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war’s trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet The Fifth Act is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great personal cost. Understanding combatants’ experiences and sacrifices while reckoning with the complex bottom line of the post-9/11 wars is not an easy balance; it demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary storyteller. It asks for an author willing to grapple with certain hard-earned truths. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that author. The Fifth Act is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.
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PRAISE FOR THE FIFTH ACT
Both an intellectual and a man of action [ Ackerman] tells the story of the clusterf**k unfolding as he holidays in Venice with his children. This conjunction of banality and evil is very striking The Sunday Telegraph
[ Ackerman] writes with power and raw honesty about how combat leaves no-one untouched and the survivors guilty Ackerman takes this story far beyond the wars he fought and focuses on the changes the US has been through in 20 yearsThe Fifth Act is not just about collapse abroad, but a warning about collapse at home The Times, Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
During the chaotic US fighting retreat from Kabul in August 2022, the writer, a former Marine, desperately tried to extract Afghan interpreters and others who had served with the US military and diplomatic corpsThe stories of the evacuation attempts are extraordinarily affecting TLS
The quality of the writing stands out. . . . part of a distinguished and growing literature by American veterans trying to understand the experience of those who served. . . . The Fifth Acts contribution to understanding the war lies foremost in passages of reflection and well-chosen quotes . . . They give pause and offer a window into deeper thought Washington Post
[ Ackerman] has a unique ability to center his and his comrades lived experience within the larger historical continuum Washington Review of Books
The Fifth Act is among the best books about war that I've ever read Michael Morell, former Director, CIA
The American betrayal of Afghanistan took twenty years. Elliot Ackerman, a participant and witness, tells the story with unsparing honesty in this intensely personal chronicle George Packer
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Americas End in Afghanistan
ELLIOT ACKERMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels 2034, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, as well as the memoir Places and Names: On War, Revolution and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.
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