A Hard and Heavy Thing

Contemplating suicide after nearly a decade at war, Levi sits down to write a note to his best friend Nick, explaining why things have to come to this inevitable end. Years earlier, Levi--a sergeant in the army--made a tragic choice that led his team into ambush, leaving three soldiers dead and two badly injured. During the attack, Levi risked death to save a badly burned and disfigured Nick. His actions won him the Silver Star for gallantry, but nothing could alleviate the guilt he carried after that fateful day. He may have saved Nick in Iraq, but when Levi returns home and spirals out of control, it is Nick's turn to play the savior, urging Levi to write. Levi begins to type as a way of bidding farewell, but what remains when he is finished is not a suicide note. It's a love song, a novel in which the beginning is the story's end, the story's end is the real beginning of Levi's life, and the future is as mutable as words on a page.

About the Author :
In the past twelve years, Matthew J. Hefti has been deployed twice to the Sunni Triangle in Iraq and twice to the battlefields of Afghanistan. While there, he worked with Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk. In addition to defusing bombs during active duty, Hefti went to school part-time and earned a BA in English and an MFA in creative writing. He had a brief piece in MFA vs. NYC and has a story forthcoming in the second volume of Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War.

Review :
"America's Asian wars have already inspired fine novels, and this debut effort is an intense, compelling addition. Hefti was an explosive ordnance disposal technician deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq twice, and his depiction of life and death in the misbegotten Iraq invasion stay with readers for a long time." --Booklist, Starred Review "[A] brilliantly observed and exquisitely paced debut novel..." --David Abrams, author of the New York Times Notable Book Fobbit "A timeless American story...[that] rings with an honesty that is earnest and smart and sad. This novel is so true to itself it hurts." --Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk "Hefti writes with an urgency that demands attention and ultimately breaks the heart." --Elliot Ackerman, author of Green on Blue ..".intellectually engaging in a way that almost no other war story can claim... The tension builds, and as the story goes on, the story-beneath-the-story asserts itself...in longer and more muscular asides." --Adrian Bonenberger, contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and author of Afghan Post "America's Asian wars have already inspired fine novels, and this debut effort is an intense, compelling addition. Hefti was an explosive ordnance disposal technician deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq twice, and his depiction of life and death in the misbegotten Iraq invasion stay with readers for a long time." --"Booklist," Starred Review "[A] brilliantly observed and exquisitely paced debut novel..." --David Abrams, author of the "New York Times" Notable Book "Fobbit" "A timeless American story...[that] rings with an honesty that is earnest and smart and sad. This novel is so true to itself it hurts." --Brian Castner, author of "The Long Walk" "Hefti writes with an urgency that demands attention and ultimately breaks the heart." --Elliot Ackerman, author of "Green on Blue" ..".intellectually engaging in a way that almost no other war story can claim... The tension builds, and as the story goes on, the story-beneath-the-story asserts itself...in longer and more muscular asides." --Adrian Bonenberger, contributor to the "New York Times," the "Washington Post," "Publishers Weekly," and author of "Afghan Post" ""A Hard and Heavy Thing" is a story of war, homecoming, friendship, and loss. Hefti writes with an urgency that demands attention and ultimately breaks the heart." --Elliot Ackerman, author of "Green on Blue"