Geoff Dyer’s 6 favorite books about the realities of war

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Geoff Dyer’s new book, Homework, is a memoir about his postwar U.K. childhood. The award-winning author of But Beautiful, Out of Sheer Rage, and The Missing of the Somme is celebrated for his wide-ranging work, and below names six favorite books about war.

‘The Face of War’ by Martha Gellhorn (1959)

A record of multiple conflicts—from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and beyond—with characteristic unflinching attention and sympathy. As Gellhorn put it: “I gave up trying to think or judge, and turned myself into a walking tape recorder with eyes.” Buy it here.

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‘Brave Men’ by Ernie Pyle (1944)

It’s hard to appreciate now just how widely read and loved Pyle was as America’s voice from the front lines of Europe. He shared the dangers of the soldiers he was writing about. He also shared their exhaustion but forced himself to go on to cover the Pacific War, where he was killed by a Japanese sniper. Buy it here.

‘The Soccer War’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski (1978)

Kapuscinski was a—the—Polish foreign correspondent, famous for having witnessed almost 30 revolutions and coups in the postwar period of decolonization. Wildly original and inventive—to a fault, since it has turned out that, despite his stated compulsion to experience everything for himself, he didn’t always witness the events he claimed to be reporting on. He remains a giant of global literature and a far worthier recipient of the Nobel Prize than some who received it. Buy it here.

‘Dispatches’ by Michael Herr (1977)

An intoxicating mix of new journalism, stoned combat reportage, and memoir that achieved the perfect form and style to convey the dreadful futility unleashed by America on Vietnam. Buy it here.

‘The Forever War’ by Dexter Filkins (2008)

A profoundly moving narrative of fragments and stories detailing the long aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. The central piece, “Pearland Habibi,” clinches the case: This is reportage on par with fiction of the highest quality. Buy it here.

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‘V13: Chronicle of a Trial’ by Emmanuel Carrère (2024)

The greatness of Carrère’s reporting on the trial of the 20 men accused of the 2015 attacks on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris lies in the willingness of a not always modest author to subordinate himself utterly to the task at hand. Beyond doubt, a superb, deeply moving tribute to—and act of—citizenship. Buy it here.