About KURTZ

Annie Kurtz joins the Marines, makes a split-second decision her superiors never wanted her to make, and wrestles with whether she should have followed her orders or her conscience. Nick Willard has pined for Annie since they were both prep school students. After he becomes a successful journalist, he discovers that America’s war in Afghanistan has changed the schoolgirl he deified. Their story explores the tensions between love and friendship, and those between morality and law. Nick and Annie come of age, and they suffer the psychological traumas that result when war makers sweep reality under a rug of ridiculous details.

Gary Shteyngart on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“A romantic thriller oozing with maturity and insight.”

^{_{Gary Shteyngart is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Little Failure (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist) and the novels Super Sad True Love Story (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), Absurdistan, and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (winner of the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction). His books regularly appear on best-of lists around the world and have been published in thirty countries.}}

Kate Germano on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“It’s extremely rare that I read a novel about women in the Marine Corps and see myself in the writing, but Lawson’s book beautifully captures the layered
complexities and contradictions of what’s fair in love, military service, and war so beautifully, it makes it all feel real. Finally, a fictional woman Marine leader and protagonist who is anything but a victim but is fully human in her flaws, her decisions in combat, and her truths.”

_{^{Lt. Col. Kate Germano, USMC (retired) is the author of Fight Like A Girl: The Truth behind how Female Marines are Trained. Her writing has been published in such outlets as the New York Times, Washington Post, San Diego Union Tribune, Time Magazine, and U.S. News and World Report. She also has been featured on NPR, CSPAN, and the PBS Newshour.}}

M.C. Armstrong on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“What a ride! Feels like Nicholas Sparks meets Joseph Conrad. John Lawson has conjured a fascinating book about the Global War on Terror, falling in love and moral courage. Kurtz is a thrilling mystery and a fast-paced romance, but it’s also a cri de coeur for bravery and empathy to a country that has lost its way. If you want a novel with a heart and mind and a keen critique of American foreign policy, find Kurtz.”

^{_{M.C. Armstrong is the author of The Mysteries of Haditha and American Delphi.}}

Valerie Nieman on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“It’s an old story: Men go off to war and women wait to receive them if they
return, however changed. Kurtz turns that ancient verity on its head. Nick Willard is a callow kid when he falls for older woman Annie Kurtz, and the author depicts him warts and all as he struggles to grow up and find his way into Annie’s arms even as she embarks on a career with the Marines. Against a backdrop of military absurdity and the horrors of the Afghan war, they seek justice and learn how to make peace with compromise.”

^{_{Valerie Nieman is the author of In the Lonely Backwater, the 2022 American Writing Awards winner in the mystery/suspense category. The novel also won the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award, North Carolina’s highest honor for fiction.}}

Ray Locker on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“In Kurtz, John Lawson has accomplished the rare feat of weaving a biting critique of the military-intellectual complex into a moving love story. It is a knowing account of war, love and longing.”

_{^{Ray Locker is the author Nixon’s Gamble and Haig’s Coup.}}

John Delury on John Lawson’s KURTZ

“Kurtz is an all-American love story set against the rise of the post-9/11 national security state. John Lawson deftly mixes youthful romance with foreign intrigue as his novel probes the dark corners of America’s forever wars, telling a tale of a consuming love between an aspiring journalist and ambitious Marine. It’s a bit like reading Graham Greene’s Quiet American, but narrated by the earnest young American rather than the jaded old Brit. A mesmerizing read.”

_{^{John Delury is the author of Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China.}}

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