The Hero Next Door - by Martha Raddatz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Emmy Award-winning ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz shares inspiring profiles of the 9/11 generation of warriors and their families who have shown courage and resilience on and off the battlefield

"An antidote to the cynicism that surrounds us, a celebration of sacrifice, selflessness, and moral courage. It is exactly the book we need." --Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of 13 Hours - "I have read hundreds of books on the military, and none has impacted me as profoundly as this one. Raddatz has captured the humanity and heroism (and the humor) of our nation's troops and their loved ones. Riveting, inspiring, and beautifully told." --Andrew Carroll, author of War Letters - "Powerful and profoundly immersive." --Kathyn Bigelow, Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker

For twenty-five years covering America's wars, Martha Raddatz has seen the courage and resilience of the men and women who have been fighting America's wars since 9/11. What motivates them to do such impossible things? How do they find the strength to walk towards danger, to improvise in the heat of the moment and start over when things don't go as planned? The Hero Next Door offers a dozen portraits of servicemen and women who are every bit as inspiring as those of the Greatest Generation. Every one of them has shown awe-inspiring strength of character, faced daunting odds in, and come out stronger. What is it about military service that inspires such selfless service and what can we learn from them?

Take Kevin Shaeffer, a naval officer working at the Pentagon on 9/11, whose experience on that day fueled his determination to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Or Mark Little, who swore the day an IED blew up his convoy in Iraq was the best day of his life, wouldn't let the loss of his legs keep him off the ice, and made it his mission, once he'd recovered, to help veterans rebuild their lives when they were down. Or Josh Webster, who dangled by a rope under enemy fire to rescue a fallen officer in the mountains of Afghanistan. Or Rocco Armonda, a highly skilled surgeon who pioneered a new way of treating traumatic brain injury in Iraq. Or Danielle "Purple" Thiriot and Charles "Wingnut" Wickware, who, once they started flying, knew exactly what their mission was. Many veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with wounds that never fully healed. There isn't one of them who would say they could have done it alone.

Life can turn on a moment, and who's to say what we'll do? That, Martha Raddatz tells us, is when you spot the real heroes: when no one is watching. "Individually, their stories are deeply inspiring," she writes. "Together, they offer something beyond inspiration: insight into what it means to live with a life-defining courage and sense of purpose."

Review Quotes

"Moving, compelling . . . What sets this book apart from others in the genre is Raddatz's decades-long relationships with the men and women whom she profiles. . . . Many of these stories highlight the ties of families--both the traditional ones and ones that the warfighters form--and the need for society to sustain its veterans. Raddatz writes with an honest voice that is accessible and trustworthy. The military provides structure in chaos, creates units through training and common experience, and gives purpose to lives. These qualities can be harder to find or missing in civilian life. Raddatz illustrates how the former warfighters deal with these changes and survive them. . . . This book should be integrated in high school and college curricula alongside Phil Klay's Redeployment. Raddatz's theme of respect and remembrance is timely and timeless."
--The Cipher Brief

"Inspiring profiles in courage for our time. . . . Heroes, it's said, are the people who run toward danger instead of away from it. To this Raddatz rejoins, 'The one sure way to spot a hero may be to look for the ones who insist they are not.' In this series of portraits of heroes, most connected to the 'forever wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan, she finds plenty to admire, even as those men and women protest that 'I was just doing my job.'"
--Kirkus Review

"The Hero Next Door reminds us brilliantly, movingly, of the many Americans who have fought our recent wars. If, two hundred and fifty years after the nation's birth, we could all begin to match these men and women's courage, devotion, service, and willingness to sacrifice, we would be a noble republic indeed. This is an important reminder of the unsung, the best among us."
--Alex Kershaw, author of Against All Odds

"I have read hundreds of books on the military, and none has impacted me as profoundly as this one. Martha Raddatz has captured the humanity and heroism (and the humor) of our nation's troops and their loved ones. These stories are riveting, inspiring, and beautifully told. They have the power to remind us, military and civilian alike, that we have so much more in common than we are led to believe."
--Andrew Carroll, author of War Letters and Behind the Lines

"Powerful and profoundly immersive, The Hero Next Door is a work of rare force and significance. Martha Raddatz plunges us into the lives of these extraordinary men and women and captures with remarkable clarity their sacrifices and unfathomable courage."
--Kathryn Bigelow, Oscar winning director of The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and A House of Dynamite

"Your heart will swell, and sometimes break, in the company of these remarkable men and women. Martha Raddatz's gorgeous, sensitive group portrait and deep sympathy for what she wonderfully calls this "no less great" generation will stay with me always. The Hero Next Door is an antidote to the cynicism that surrounds us, a celebration of sacrifice, selflessness, and moral courage. It is exactly the book we need."
--Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Fall and Rise and 13 Hours

"Very few people outside the military really understand what those of us who serve experience--Martha Raddatz is one of them. In this remarkable book, she lets people see the real character of our servicemen and women. It is truly humbling to have led some of them."
--General Robert "Abe" Abrams, Former Commander UNC, Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea

About the Author

Martha Raddatz has been covering America's wars for ABC since September 11, as chief global affairs correspondent and co-anchor of This Week. She is the author of The Long Road Home, a New York Times bestseller made into a National Geographic miniseries. Raddatz was part of the team that won a Peabody Award for coverage of September 11 and an Emmy for coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden. She has won seven Emmys. She was also awarded the George C. Marshall Medal for sustained commitment to the men and women of America's armed forces.