Letters from War: A Novel - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Mark Schultz is a Dove-Award winning artist and has become one of Christian music’s most acclaimed singer/songwriters. He received BMI’s Christian Song of the Year in 2003 for “Back in His Arms Again.” Schultz has also tasted success on the mainstream adult contemporary charts with such hits as “He’s My Son,” “Letters from War,” and “Walking Her Home.” Schultz has flooded radio with ten No. 1 songs, such as “Remember Me” and “I Am the Way.” He’s also earned the top spot on Billboard magazine’s Christian Adult Contemporary Songwriter list. His 2005 release, Mark Schultz Live . . . A Night of Stories & Songs, sold RIAA certified Platinum and garnered Schultz his first GMA Dove Award.

Travis Thrasher is the author of more than twenty works of fiction, including Paper Angels and Letters From War. He has been called “the Nicholas Sparks of Christian fiction” by Christian Retailing magazine. Travis lives with his wife and daughters in a suburb of Chicago.

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Prologue

THE LAST LETTER

The soldier wrestles to write words he knows will be his last.

He searches his heart, trying to find what he wants to say. After so many letters, this one needs to count.

This one needs to last.

There is no one definitive sentence or theme he needs to write. Yet he wants his family to know that he will always be there, that he will always love them.

Just because he is gone doesn’t mean he has left them.

There is so much he wants to say. Things to share. About the places he’s seen, the journey he’s been on, the road he’s headed toward. The pride in his heart for serving his country.

He knows the world is full of bad places filled with bad men. He remembers his father telling him that. He remembers that was one of the reasons he decided to join the army.

Yet even in a world like this, there is hope. Hope is not confined to Tennessee or the United States of America. Hope can be found in the darkest of spots, in the prisons of people’s souls.

He thinks of her face and smiles.

He loves her and wants the best for her. He can only imagine how many times she’s prayed for his safety, a safety that won’t hold.

Maybe God one day will tell her the reasons why.

Maybe God will fill her with renewed hope once he’s gone.

He starts writing.

In a world full of endless rhetoric, he tries to convey a simple and eloquent truth.

I’m not writing to say good-bye. I’m writing to make a promise.

So he does.

© 2011 Mark Schultz