Now the Hell Will Start

Name: Now the Hell Will Start
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Brendan I. Koerner
ISBN: 9781705256626

Author: Brendan I. Koerner

Narrator: David Sadzin

Unabridged: 10 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/25/2020

Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Military Nonfiction

Synopsis

An epic saga of hubris, cruelty, and redemption, Now the Hell Will Start tells the remarkable tale of the greatest manhunt of World War II. Herman Perry, besieged by the hardships of the Indo-Burmese jungle and the racism meted out by his white commanding officers, found solace in opium and marijuana. But on one fateful day, Perry shot his unarmed white lieutenant in the throes of an emotional collapse and fled into the jungle.

Brendan I. Koerner spent nearly five years chasing Perry's ghost to the most remote corners of India and Burma. Along the way, he uncovered the forgotten story of the Ledo Road's GIs, for whom Jim Crow was as powerful an enemy as the Japanese—and for whom Herman Perry, dubbed the jungle king, became an unlikely folk hero.

About Brendan I. Koerner

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired magazine and the author of Now the Hell Will Start. A former columnist for the New York Times and Slate magazine, he has also written for Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, and Mother Jones, among many other publications. Named one of Columbia Journalism Review's "Ten Young Writers on the Rise," Brendan won a 2003 National Headliner Award for feature writing, and his stories have appeared in Best American Science Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alfred on April 12, 2009

"It is best to use discretion when confronting an emotionally shattered man, especially if he's holding a semiautomatic weapon." With this understated maxim, journalist Brendan Koerner begins perhaps the most phenomenal untold story of World War II. So phenomenal, in fact, that whenever I attempt to......more

Goodreads review by Nicholas on October 01, 2008

I'm a easy sell for a cool title or a awesome summary. I've bought many books off a compelling blurb on the back. "Now the Hell Will Start" has both. Seriously, say that title aloud. How cool and compelling can a book title get? Combined with the somewhat bleak cover and the description of a black ma......more

Goodreads review by David on September 01, 2008

The opening sentence: "It is best to use discretion when confronting an emotionally shattered man, especially if he's holding a semiautomatic rifle." Words to live by. This is a fascinating book--a mixture of a biography of a black soldier who fled arrest and married the daughter of a headhunter chief,......more

Goodreads review by Mbanga on July 21, 2008

Like the zoot suit riot scene from "American Me," this book serves as a brutal and necessary rejoinder to myths about the greatest generation. In the protagonist Herman Perry, the author adds flesh, sweat, and bone to the nameless black GI lurking in the background of previous WWII narratives -- and......more

Goodreads review by Zoe on August 19, 2008

There are sequences that made my eyes glaze over a bit (i.e. the entire history of the Ledo road), but every aspect that dealt with Herman Perry's life is incredibly interesting and make the book well worth it. A young black soldier who killed a white soldier during WWII in Burma, Perry eluded captu......more