Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Istanbul Letters | 2016 | Elliot Ackerman | Buy |
| 2 | Places and Names | 2019 | Elliot Ackerman | Buy |
| 3 | The Fifth Act | 2022 | Elliot Ackerman | Buy |
Elliot Ackerman’s non-fiction draws directly on his military service and his work as a war correspondent. Istanbul Letters records his time living in Turkey. Places and Names is a memoir that moves between his combat experiences and his later travels through the Middle East, connecting personal history with the broader arc of American wars.
The Fifth Act covers the fall of Kabul in August 2021, when Ackerman helped organize an ad hoc evacuation of Afghan allies. The book is both a piece of journalism and a reckoning with what twenty years of war accomplished and failed to accomplish.