Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world--both its horrors and its thrills--and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature.

Author: Karl Marlantes
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Published: 03/23/2010
Pages: 592
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.35h x 6.50w x 2.00d
ISBN: 9780802119285


Award: Indies Choice Book Awards - Winner
Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner
Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Silver Medal Winner
Award: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award - Winner
Award: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award - Finalist
Award: Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize - Winner
Award: Washington State Book Award - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/15/2009 pg. 80
Publishers Weekly 01/11/2010 pg. 28
Library Journal 02/01/2010 pg. 58
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2010
New York Times Book Review 04/04/2010 pg. 1
New York Times Book Review 04/11/2010 pg. 22
Newsweek 05/10/2010 pg. 40
Entertainment Weekly 07/09/2010 pg. 78
Entertainment Weekly 08/13/2010 pg. 79
New York Review of Books 12/09/2010 pg. 53
Entertainment Weekly 12/24/2010 pg. 122
Men's Journal 12/01/2010 pg. 148
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001
BookPage 04/01/2010

About the Author
A graduate of Yale University and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Karl Marlantes served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. This is his first novel.