Summary

The opening of the introduction describes nights on the Pumpkin: long and full of threatening shadows. Before dawn, the sleeping soldiers not on guard duty are all woken for the morning ritual, called Readiness at Dawn, in which they don their gear and prepare for the day. It was so quiet at dawn on the Pumpkin that author Matti Friedman felt that he could hear the hill talking to him, asking him "What are you doing here?" and "Why don't you go home?" Many years later, the hill is still speaking to him, and so he has written this book about the lives of the young men who fought at the Pumpkin "in a forgotten little corner of a forgotten little war" (2).

Analysis

The author uses the introduction to explain the setting that is the primary focus of his story: the Pumpkin outpost in...