Snapshots Sent Home - by Jt Blatty (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Like many post-9/11 combat veterans, JT Blatty struggled to regain her sense of purpose in the first years returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2018, a chance encounter brought her to Ukraine, drawn in by the familiarity of war and those who serve in wars. Over five years, JT captured the oral history and portraits of a tribe of revolutionaries, the Donbas volunteer soldiers. As she embedded with them on the front line in bunkers and forests, and in Kyiv flats, JT's story began to blend with theirs in a universal bond of combat veterans. The love of a soldier and an entire veteran community compelled her to stay as a new war began.

Review Quotes

" ... a sweeping and illuminating account ... powerful, engaging narrative ... kaleidoscopic portrait of her experiences, and those of the people she meets and grows close with along the way. ... Blatty shares her and their stories with immediacy, honesty, and depth. ... a sense of place and people that is usually only arrived at by being there; the men and women who people this book are richly and vividly drawn, like characters in a good novel. ... challenging, revelatory, and important ... This book is a rare and moving testament to the ties that bind those who experience war and its ongoing, lasting effects."-Alexa Dilworth, former publishing director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

"Through a series of dispatches, across several frontlines ... Blatty weaves a wholly unique and timely account of life during wartime on Ukraine's eastern front. ... Under the blanket of slow terror ... Blatty finds love on the other end of her camera lens, and perhaps, part of herself. ..."-James McGrath, former bureau chief, Gamma Presse

"Blatty's unparalleled memoir gives readers a glimpse of ... the universal truths of war and conflict ..."-Robert P. Ottone, author, The Vile Thing We Created and The Triangle

"... an intimate, finely-written memoir about the truths and realities shared by soldiers everywhere. ... Blatty ruminates about the nature of comradeship, patriotism, longing, loss, life and death; memory and love. ... this devastatingly moving book ... should be read by anyone who cares about what we do on history's battlefields, and about how we process what we have done afterwards. ... will stay on in readers' minds for a long time to come."-Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer, The New Yorker; author of Che Guevara and The Fall of Baghdad