Events

"Dust to Dust" is an extraordinary memoir about ordinary things: life and death, war and peace, the explorations of childhood and revelations of adulthood by Busch--a U.S. Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq, an actor on "The Wire," and son of celebrated novelist Frederick Busch. In elemental-themed chapters--water, metal, bone, blood--Busch weaves together a vivid record of a pastoral childhood in rural New York; Marine training in North Carolina, Ukraine, and California; and deployment during the worst of the war in Iraq, as seen firsthand. But this is much more than a war memoir. Busch writes with great poignancy about the resonance of a boyhood spent exploring rivers and woods, building forts, and testing the limits of safety. Most of all, he brings enormous emotional power to his reflections on mortality: in a helicopter going down; wounded by shrapnel in Ramadi; dealing with the sudden death of friends in combat and of parents back home. "Dust to Dust" is an unforgettable meditation on life and loss, and how the curious children we were remain alive in us all.