icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

SHARD

Private Ethan Shard is part of the US Army of Occupation in Japan, 1950, knee-deep in the black market, getting rich stealing from the Army and selling to Japanese gangs. All that changes when the North Koreans invade South Korea and overwhelm the defending forces. Ethan Shard is sent to war, along with his partner-in-crime Elliot "Skitter" Skinner, part of a hastily organized force in a desperate attempt to halt the North Korean advance. In their first skirmish, the two men are captured. It will take all of Shard's strength to help survive the brutality of the climate, their captors, and their own natures in this novel of captivity, betrayal, and endurance.

The Korean War is often called the "forgotten war." SHARD, James R. Benn's exquisitely researched novel, brings that tragic era blazingly to life. After reading it, you will never forget that war, nor the men who fought it, again.
—Martin Limón, author of War Women and other Sergeants Sueño and Bascom novels.


Concise, well-researched, exciting, intensely personal and illuminating. SHARD, Benn's fictional exploration of the Korean War—America's "forgotten war"—is breathtaking in its detail and astounding in its emotional depth and breadth. An electrifying boots-on-the-ground look at the past that is especially pertinent today.
—Stephen Mack Jones, author of the AUGUST SNOW thrillers