Victorious

From the author of The Memory Monster, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, comes a gripping examination of the complexities of military service as experienced by Abigail, a psychologist who becomes implicated in the moral, political, and ethical dilemmas soldiers encounter both on and off the battlefield.



The fierce protagonist of Yishai Sarid's Victorious is Abigail, a military psychologist and single mother who has spent her career in the Israeli Army. She has become an expert in talking with young soldiers about the trauma of war, instructing them how to prepare for combat and to kill with resilience and efficacy. She is wholly devoted to her mission and to her country. As Abigail becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the army's Chief of Staff and those of her patients, the lines between her personal beliefs and her objectivity as a mental health professional begin to blur.



Abigail's deeply moral father, a clinical psychologist himself, is openly critical of her choice to use psychology to aid Israel's imperative to kill. Yet she believes she has a duty to help the army defeat its enemy. When her son Shauli enlists in the paratrooper's unit as part of his mandatory military service, he experiences a mental breakdown during combat, and Abigail must confront the horrific consequences of war.



As he did in his acclaimed novel The Memory Monster, Yishai Sarid unmasks the contradictions at the heart of patriotism, national identity, and the conflicts that have riven the Middle East for decades. Victorious is a riveting, thoughtful examination of modern warfare that brings readers into the minds of soldiers and those who train them, ultimately leading us to ask, what price is a country willing to pay for victory?