Robert Draper

A man convicted of murder is pardoned by the prison director, in return for which he is to murder the director's enemy. The setting is a Texas town which lives off the prison, its inmates serving as field hands and houseboys.

"Even now, after more than fifteen years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully...