Many war books have been written the horrors of combat. All the Ruined Men explores how difficult and confusing it can be afterward to come back home. All the Ruined Men is a book of linked stories that show veterans struggling to adjust to civilian life after years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a combat veteran, and a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, Bill served in the Gulf War as part of the first units deployed to prevent Saddam Hussein from invading Saudi Arabia. After months of tension, He was part of the ground invasion into Iraq, charging through sand dunes littered with dead bodies.
"I took after my father, a Vietnam vet who never spoke about his war. Stoicism was his fortress. It became mine too. Silence served as a tolerable stopgap for a while, but once I left the Army, I had too much free time to think. Reports about scores of veteran suicides had me worried. I hadn’t considered taking my own life, but some dark vortex had me in its grip. My choices were simple: I could follow the lessons of my silent father and let my internal anger and confusion grow until they exploded, or I could try something different. So I began to write about my experiences and those of other soldiers fighting in our seemingly never-ending wars. What I learned was that words had the power to heal. And that healing could be shared—with other veterans, with their families, with anyone curious about what it’s like to go to war and come home with serious emotional baggage." Bill Glose