Brotherhood

"Six months after 9/11, U.S. troops were on the ground in Afghanistan; less than a year later, America invaded Iraq. Brotherhood follows players on West Point's fiercely passionate rugby team as they became members of the first class to graduate in wartime since the days of Vietnam. Longtime journalist and Guardian editor Martin Pengelly's moving story covers a remarkable decades-long arc from 9/11 to present day. The narrative is guided by team captain, Matt Blind, as well as Bryan Phillips, an enormous football lineman who found a new life in the heart of the rugby scrum, and coach Mike Mahan, a legend of Army sports. Brotherhood offers intimate portraits of young men who go to war and what it meant to them to be bonded first by their time on the sports field. Of the rugby-playing teammates in West Point's class of 2002 who went to war, some came home and others didn't. Capt. Jimmy Gurbisz, one of the team's forwards, came from blue-collar New Jersey, achieved his dream by entering West Point, discovered a new sport there, fell in love with it, excelled, but suffered an injury which led directly to his tragic death in a blast of flame and steel on a dusty Baghdad street. Team players Zac Miller and Joey Emigh died away from war, but no less tragically. This book captures banding together on the rugby field with the same men whose lives they'll have to fiercely protect on the battlefield. Given extraordinary access, Pengelly has created a singular blend of brutal sports and even more brutal war that reads like Friday Nights Lights meets Band of Brothers"--

Martin Pengelly is the Washington-based breaking news correspondent for Guardian US. Born in Leeds, UK, he played rugby for Durham University and Rosslyn Park FC and worked for Rugby News, the Guardian and the Independent before moving to the US in 2012. Since then, he has written about politics, books, and rugby in America. His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. Brotherhood is his first book.