Wandering Souls - by Philip Caputo (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Caputo returns to the heart of the human condition with Wandering Souls, a collection of powerful stories that explore war, love, nature, life, and death.

In the gripping title story, a Vietnam vet revisits the war-torn landscape of his past, searching for the grave of a forgotten soldier--only to uncover far more than he bargained for. In another tale, a wildlife photographer in the African savanna risks everything for a chance at true love. A thief escaping Central America finds himself aboard a ship, only to be thrust into the peril of an approaching storm. These and other stories in Wandering Souls are told with the authenticity and keen insight that have made Caputo's writing unforgettable, offering emotionally intense and richly atmospheric narratives.

With his distinctive style, Caputo delves into the complex relationship between man and memory--sometimes haunting, sometimes redemptive--capturing moments of profound emotional reckoning that compel his characters to confront their pasts and the indelible marks left by the places that shaped them. In Wandering Souls, the past is never truly gone; it is a force that defines us, for better or worse.

Review Quotes

Praise for Philip Caputo

"When Phil Caputo writes, I read. From 2007 to 2023, while researching my latest book on the American War in Vietnam, I had separate copies of Phil's A Rumor of War in both my homes in Vietnam and Connecticut. I honestly cannot remember how many times I read that classic and Phil's subsequent page-turners. I have traveled through Phil's masterful books from Hanoi to Key West, from Saigon to Alaska and marveled at his refined skill at introducing me to new people and places. I recently again journeyed to compelling new worlds with Phil's elegant new gem, Wandering Souls."--James Bradley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers and Precious Freedom

"With his journalist's eye for detail and his novelist's sensibility for the nuances of human behavior, Philip Caputo has crafted a tour-de-force story of love in the modern world and of mental illness that will resonate with the reader long after its breathtaking finale."--Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of To the New Owners and Queen of the Court

"Caputo's fluid yarn unspools at just the right pace, ultimately knitting together the themes of loyalty, betrayal, unbreakable bonds, and the lingering taste of a long-ago passion."--Booklist

"Caputo's wisdom runs deep. Few writers have better captured the emotional lives of men."?New York Times Book Review, front-page review

"Caputo knows how to set a scene and build tension through detail. . . . His prose is tough-minded but not without compassion, and he brings experience from one part of the world to another."?Seattle Times

"A master investigator of the human psyche in the mold of Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Bellow."?Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

"A superb storyteller."--Library Journal

"A master of his craft."?Booklist

"An acute observer of human disorder and disarray."?Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Philip Caputo was born in Chicago in 1941 and educated at Purdue and Loyola Universities. After graduating in 1964, he served in the US Marine Corps for three years, including a sixteen-month tour of duty in Vietnam. In addition to Memory and Desire, he has written seventeen books, among them three memoirs, ten works of fiction, and four of general nonfiction. His first book, A Rumor of War, is considered a classic of war literature. It has been published in fifteen languages and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Caputo has written dozens of articles in major magazines, op-ed pieces, and reviews for publications across the United States, including the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Patagonia, Arizona.