Places and Names
On War, Revolution, and Returning
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Narrated by:
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Elliot Ackerman
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Mark Deakins
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By:
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Elliot Ackerman
About this listen
One of NPR's Best Books of 2019
“Lyrical . . . A thoughtful perspective on America’s role overseas.”—Washington Post
From a decorated Marine war veteran and National Book Award finalist, an astonishing reckoning with the nature of combat and the human cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
“War hath determined us.”—John Milton, Paradise Lost
Toward the beginning of Places and Names, Elliot Ackerman sits in a refugee camp in southern Turkey, across the table from a man named Abu Hassar, who fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq and whose connections to the Islamic State are murky. At first, Ackerman pretends to have been a journalist during the Iraq War, but after establishing a rapport with Abu Hassar, he takes a risk by revealing to him that in fact he was a Marine special operation officer. Ackerman then draws the shape of the Euphrates River on a large piece of paper, and his one-time adversary quickly joins him in the game of filling in the map with the names and dates of places where they saw fighting during the war. They had shadowed each other for some time, it turned out, a realization that brought them to a strange kind of intimacy.
The rest of Elliot Ackerman's extraordinary memoir is in a way an answer to the question of why he came to that refugee camp, and what he hoped to find there. By moving back and forth between his recent experiences on the ground as a journalist in Syria and its environs and his deeper past in Iraq and Afghanistan, he creates a work of remarkable atmospheric pressurization. Ackerman shares vivid and powerful stories of his own experiences in combat, culminating in the events of the Second Battle of Fallujah, the most intense urban combat for the Marines since Hue in Vietnam, where Ackerman's actions leading a rifle platoon saw him awarded the Silver Star. He weaves these stories into the latticework of a masterful larger reckoning with contemporary geopolitics through his vantage as a journalist in Istanbul and with the human extremes of both bravery and horror.
At once an intensely personal story about the terrible lure of combat and a brilliant meditation on the larger meaning of the past two decades of strife for America, the region, and the world, Places and Names bids fair to take its place among our greatest books about modern war.
©2019 Elliot Ackerman (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“In Places and Names, perhaps the most striking war memoir of the year, Ackerman attempts to make sense of the reasons he served (personal and geopolitical), the people he met, the kinship he felt and the reckonings he has since confronted. Places and Names is as clean and spare in its prose as it is sharp and unsparing in timely observation.”—TIME magazine
“[A] spare, beautiful memoir . . . Places and Names is a classic meditation on war, how it compels and resists our efforts to order it with meaning. In simple, evocative sentences, with sparing but effective glances at poetry and art, [Ackerman] weaves memories of his deployments with his observations in and near Syria. He pulls off a literary account of war that is accessible to those who wonder ‘what it’s like’ while ringing true to those who—each in his or her own way—already know.”—The New York Times
“Beautiful writing about combat and humanity and what it means to ‘win’ a war.”—Mary Louise Kelly, NPR
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Story
Determined to offer an unfiltered version of events, the Washington Post's Anthony Shadid was neither embedded with soldiers nor briefed by politicians. Because he is fluent in Arabic, Shadid, an Arab-American born and raised in Oklahoma, was able to actually disappear into the divided, dangerous worlds of Iraq. Day by day, as American dreams clashed with Arab notions of justice, he pieced together the human story of ordinary Iraqis weathering the terrible dislocations and tragedies of war.
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Too little, too late
- By Kindle Customer on 03-23-09
By: Anthony Shadid
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The Way to the Spring
- Life and Death in Palestine
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Ben Ehrenreich
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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From an award-winning journalist, a brave and necessary immersion into the everyday struggles of Palestinian life. Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal, The Way to the Spring.
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One-sided version of 'the truth'
- By Mark on 01-01-18
By: Ben Ehrenreich
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Fast Times in Palestine
- A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland
- By: Pamela J. Olson
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Olson, a small town girl from eastern Oklahoma, had what she always wanted: a physics degree from Stanford University. But instead of feeling excited for what came next, she felt consumed by dread and confusion. This irresistible memoir chronicles her journey from aimless ex-bartender to Ramallah-based journalist and foreign press coordinator for a Palestinian presidential candidate.
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Palestine from the Inside—and Out
- By Susie on 11-04-13
By: Pamela J. Olson
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The Naked Don't Fear the Water
- An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
- By: Matthieu Aikins
- Narrated by: Nick Nikon
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this extraordinary book, an acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.
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Great story, horrible narration
- By AB on 02-25-22
By: Matthieu Aikins
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The Mirror Test
- America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan
- By: J. Kael Weston
- Narrated by: J. Kael Weston
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the US State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he asked himself: When will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them?
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A Must Read
- By Jessica Myrick on 06-04-16
By: J. Kael Weston
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I Lost My Love in Baghdad
- A Modern War Story
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Michael Hastings
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter: cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators.
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Sad story...
- By kathryn on 01-01-09
By: Michael Hastings
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Love, Africa
- A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival
- By: Jeffrey Gettleman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A seasoned war correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman has covered every major conflict over the past 20 years, from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Congo. For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling his teenage dream of living in Africa. Love, Africa is the story of how he got there - and of his difficult, winding path toward becoming a good reporter and a better man.
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Loved this book!!!
- By Benjamin on 05-26-17
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Brothers of the Gun
- A Memoir of the Syrian War
- By: Marwan Hisham, Molly Crabapple
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, Marwan Hisham and his two friends - fellow working-class college students Nael and Tareq - joined the first protests of the Arab Spring in Syria, in response to a recent massacre. Arm in arm they marched, poured Coca-Cola into one another’s eyes to blunt the effects of tear gas, ran from the security forces, and cursed the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad. It was ecstasy. A long-bottled revolution was finally erupting, and freedom from a brutal dictator seemed, at last, imminent.
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Perfect with Peter Ganim
- By Anonymous User on 06-14-24
By: Marwan Hisham, and others
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No Turning Back
- Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
- By: Rania Abouzeid
- Narrated by: Susan Nezami
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters.
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SYRIA'S FAMILY BUSINESS
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 12-03-22
By: Rania Abouzeid
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They Will Have to Die Now
- Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate
- By: James Verini
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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James Verini arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2016 to write about life in the Islamic State. He stayed to cover the jihadis' last great stand, the Battle of Mosul, not knowing it would go on for nearly a year, nor that it would become, in the words of the Pentagon, "the most significant urban combat since WWII." They Will Have to Die Now takes the listener into the heart of the conflict against the most lethal insurgency of our time. We see unspeakable violence, improbable humanity, and occasional humor.
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really solid performance keeps you engaged
- By TFMethane on 04-12-21
By: James Verini
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The Vortex
- A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation
- By: Scott Carney, Jason Miklian
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In November 1970, a storm set a collision course with the most densely populated coastline on Earth. Over the course of just a few hours, the Great Bhola Cyclone would kill 500,000 people and begin a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide, and war. The Vortex is the dramatic story of how that storm sparked a country to revolution.
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One of the Best books this year!
- By Nazir on 05-26-22
By: Scott Carney, and others
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The Fracture Zone
- A Return to the Balkans
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. Unrest in the Balkans has gone on for centuries. A seasoned reporter, Winchester visited the region twenty years ago. When Kosovo reached crisis level in 1997, Winchester thought a return visit to the beleaguered area would help to make sense out of the awful violence.
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Loved this-Great combo:Story and History Explained
- By Jeremy on 07-10-14
By: Simon Winchester
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The Morning They Came for Us
- Dispatches from Syria
- By: Janine di Giovanni
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Doing for Syria what Imperial Life in the Emerald City did for the war in Iraq, The Morning They Came for Us bears witness to one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni gives us a tour de force of war reportage, all told through the perspective of ordinary people.
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Bearing Witness to the Brutalities of War
- By Theo Horesh on 06-07-18
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No Good Men Among the Living
- America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes
- By: Anand Gopal
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In a breathtaking chronicle, acclaimed journalist Anand Gopal traces in vivid detail the lives of three Afghans caught in America's war on terror. He follows a Taliban commander who rises from scrawny teenager to leading insurgent, a U.S.-backed warlord who uses the American military to gain personal wealth and power, and a village housewife trapped between the two sides who discovers the devastating cost of neutrality.
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Outstanding book, remarkable narrator
- By captainramius on 04-05-19
By: Anand Gopal
What listeners say about Places and Names
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- rayscale
- 11-02-19
An American Hero
Eliot Ackerman is truly an American hero. When one reads this book, you cannot help being reminded of other classics on war like From here to Eternity and the Young Lions. It is brilliantly written by a warrior who survived the battle of Falluja. And we remember our fallen Marines who gave their lives for our country.
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- Darin Nunn
- 12-07-23
One Marines journey in GWOT
Ackerman pulls you into his situation, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey or Syria. You can smell it and see it through his descriptive prose.
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- Montgomery E.
- 12-16-22
Phenomenal
If you are a veteran of Iraq, this is a must read. The way Ackerman describes life at war as a Marine officer, and how those who live in Iraq and Syria live with war today brings a reality to the nature of war that few other books can. Required reading for military historians, and anyone who wants to understand the nature of our humanity better.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-22-19
This is what true patriotism looks like.
Very dynamic description of the "situation" in the middle east told first hand. In a time of bumper sticker patriotism and veterans being used as pawns in political warfare, this is a must read. Thank you for sharing a look into your world Elliot.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kent Prochazka
- 12-05-19
A crazy ride through the Mideast.
Heartfelt story of personal history through the last war in the Mideast. It also gets into the current issues with the Taliban/ISIS/Iraq/Turkey from someone that is dealing with it firsthand.
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- Giulia Gulia
- 11-21-21
best narrative style
so interesting and i like his narrating style which at first seems a bit monotone but in the long run is precise and soothing.
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- Booth H in Texas
- 09-01-19
Magnificent
This work, as both text and narration, is almost beyond praise. Insightful and full of personal description, but never self-indulgent and often self-deprecating,, Ackerman presents a brilliant remembrance of what it means to be at war, and what it means to strive to comprehend that war in the aftermath. It is a magnificently memorable memoir, made even more so by the author’s understated narration.
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- Ty Andras
- 08-28-24
Excellent but strange sound effect on parts…
This is a great book packed with amazing stories but the narrator or narration sounds trippy. The rate and tone of his voice sounds like 2 people taking turns reading and switching off sometimes mid sentence and it’s super annoying if you have headphones on. Maybe the audio department can look into this issue and EQ the vocals or look at why it’s happening. It’s just too good of a book to let something so stupid distract from it.
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