Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet
An award-winning Iraq War memoir about family, trauma, collapse, and healing, Downriver follows one father from the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the fall of Lehman Brothers, tracing how the defining shocks of the post-9/11 era echo through one American life.
"Few war memoirs achieve the level of literary depth and emotional resonance of Downriver." -General David Petraeus, U.S. Army, Ret.
Foreword INDIES Gold Winner, War & Military Adult Nonfiction
Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner
BookLife Prize Critics Score: 9.5/10
As a platoon leader in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, Ryan McDermott fought in several key engagements during the opening weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom, including the Battle for Objective Peach and the seizure of Saddam International Airport, now Baghdad International Airport. With clarity and emotional honesty, Downriver brings readers inside rarely told frontline moments from the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But this is not only a book about war. It is a book about what comes after.
After returning from Iraq, McDermott transitioned to Wall Street, only to experience another kind of collapse from inside Lehman Brothers during the 2008 financial crisis. What began as a celebrated career change became a deeper confrontation with trauma, identity, ambition, fatherhood, faith, and reintegration.
Blending combat narrative, military memoir, literary reflection, and poetry, Downriver follows the long road from survival to meaning. It speaks to veterans, military families, leaders, fathers, and anyone who has had to rebuild after loss, upheaval, or personal collapse.
For readers of The Long Walk, Jarhead, Redeployment, The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell, and Matterhorn, Downriver offers a distinctive post-9/11 American story about war, family, trauma, and the battles that continue long after the war ends.
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