Pumpkinflowers

Pumpkinflowers recounts the harrowing experiences of a band of young Israeli soldiers charged with holding a remote outpost in Lebanon called Pumpkin Hill.

The book is part memoir, part reportage, and part history, capturing the birth of today’s chaotic Middle East and the rise of a twenty-first-century type of war.

It foreshadows the unwinnable conflicts the United States would soon confront in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Friedman’s narrative explores the psychological and physical toll of war on the soldiers and the broader implications for Israel and the world.