wheeler award for infantry excellence and "green on blue" is elliot acker match's debut novel and this evening we are very pleased to have him here to discuss it with you. so if you would come forward, please. [applause] >> thanks so much to the ivy book store for supporting this event. i'm going to read from the opening of the novel. many would call me a dishonest man, but i've always kept faith with myself. there's an honesty in that, i think. we are from a village which no longer exists, and our family was not large or prosperous. the war that came after the russians but before the americans killed our parents. of them i have only dim memories. there's my father's kalashnikov him cleaning it, working oiled rags on its parts and the smell of gun metal and feeling safe. there's my mother's secret, the one she shared with me. once a month she'd count out my father's earnings from fighting in the mountains or farming. she'd send me and ali from our village to the large bazaar, a two-day walk. the bazaar sold everything; fine cooking oils and spices, candles to light our home and fabric