J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home he asked himself: How and when will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them? The overall frame for his book The Mirror Test centers on soldiers who have received a grievous wound to the face and must look upon their reconstructed appearance for the first time. Here, like grains of sand, Weston gathers these voices and stories--Iraqi, Afghan, and American--and polishes them into a sheet of glass, one he offers to us as a national mirror. For his work with Marines in Fallujah, Kael has been awarded one of our country’s highest honors, the Secretary of State's Medal for Heroism.
