Dust To Dust A Memoir

I knew very early that I was a solitary being. I longed for the elemental. As a child I was drawn into the wilderness, the reckless water of oceans, and rain, the snow and ice floes, the mountains of rock, stones, sand and the forests. This title is about life and death, peace and war, the adventures of childhood and the revelations of adulthood.

Dust to Dust is an extraordinary memoir about life and landscape, mortality and memory, the farm and the battlefield, the adventures of childhood and the revelations of adulthood. Writing with enormous poignancy, Benjamin Busch, a decorated U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer and the son of celebrated novelist Frederick Busch, has crafted a lasting book about our place in time to stand with the finest work of Tim O'Brien or Annie Dillard.

From his pastoral childhood in rural New York to Marine training in North Carolina, Ukraine, and California; from a boyhood of fort building and exploration to deployment during the worst of the war in Iraq, in Dust to Dust Busch offers much more than a war memoir. Here is an unforgettable meditation on life and loss, the longing for the elemental and the call of the wild, and how the curious children we were remain alive in us all.

I knew very early that I was a solitary being. I longed for the elemental. As a child I was drawn into the wilderness, the reckless water of oceans, rivers, and rain, the snow and ice floes, the mountains of rock, stones, and sand, the forests, and the ruins left vacant by human decline, neglect, and tragedy...War was wilderness, and I went there, too from the Prologue. "Dust to Dust" is an extraordinary memoir about ordinary things: life and death, peace and war, the adventures of childhood and the revelations of adulthood. Writing with enormous poignancy, Benjamin Busch - a decorated U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer who served two combat tours in Iraq, an actor on "The Wire", and the son of celebrated novelist Frederick Busch-offers an unforgettable meditation on life and loss, the longing for the elemental and the call of the wild, and how the curious children we were remain alive in us all. Elegiac, funny, wistful, deep, and wonderfully human, "Dust to Dust" moved me to laughter and tears, sometimes simultaneously...After reading this book, you will want to go outside and really look at our world. Karl Marlantes, author of "Matterhorn" and "What It's Like to Go to War".