The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction

Tim O'Brien

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009 - Fiction - 246 pages

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O'Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.

Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

What people are saying

Review: The Things They Carried

User Review  - Linda - Goodreads

WOW! How have I lived this long without finding this book? I am amazed. The writing is so powerful. If only I could write this way. This is one author who I will devotedly follow into his stories - knowing full well that he is going to make me smile and completely break my heart.

Review: The Things They Carried

User Review  - Dan Rheingans - Goodreads

Powerful, well written book about the experience of Vietnam, humanity, life, and the experience of living and dying, regret and courage, redemption and revenge, fear and brotherhood. O'Brien's writing ...

About the author

TIM O'BRIEN received the 1979 National Book Award in fiction for Going After Cacciato. His other works include the acclaimed novels The Things They Carried and July, July. In the Lake of the Woods received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was named the best novel of 1994 by Time. O'Brien lives in Austin, Texas.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction
• Author: Tim O'Brien
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009
• ISBN: 0618706410, 9780618706419
• Length: 246 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Short Stories (single author); Fiction / War & Military