From Publishers Weekly
Few Vietnam books treat the effects of a U.S. soldier's death on his family. This muscularly written, starkly honest memoir fills a significant gap. Smith (Fatal Treasure), an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor, was 22 years old, the oldest of six children, when his beloved younger brother Jeff was killed by a Vietcong rocket during a firefight near the village of Mai Xa Thi on March 7, 1968. Jeff's death tore the fragile family apart: their mother retreated into severe alcoholism and an all-encompassing fixation on Jeff (who had been her favorite); their emotionally distant father - a WWII Marine beset by postwar demons - left the family for another woman. Smith's other brothers and sisters suffered severe and lasting psychological problems, and Smith himself - while outwardly coping well by marrying, having children and working his way up the journalism ladder - became an emotional cripple bent on self-destruction: "Not only did I thoroughly embrace alcohol, but I also became kind of psychotic." Smith tells his story with bluntness and conviction, including what becomes a cathartic happy ending when he and two of his brother's fellow Marines make a journey to Vietnam in 2001 to visit the spot where Jeff died. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review
Jedwin Smith spent 30 years trying to repress all memories of his brother, Jeff, who was killed in Vietnam. But in Our Brother’s Keeper he tells what happens when the Internet brings him into contact with several of his brother’s old Marine buddies, including the guy who held Jeff in his arms as he died. First via e-mails, and then in person, Smith gets to know these men—all scarred by the past they shared. Together the author and his new friends make a pilgrimage to Vietnam, to visit the spot where Jeff died. In a remarkable twist, their Vietnamese guide turns out to be the former commander of the Viet Cong platoon responsible for the attack that killed Jeff. A powerful story of brotherhood, bravery and healing. (Reader's Digest, March 2005)


Book Description
Advance Praise for Our Brother's Keeper

"Beautifully written and extraordinarily poignant, Our Brother's Keeper is a Vietnam book like none other. The ghosts of Vietnam are finally starting to circle home, and this remarkable writer has given them voice with passion and resonance. I love Jedwin Smith's Fatal Treasure; Our Brother's Keeper is even closer to the heart." — Jeff Long, New York Times bestselling author of The Descent and The Reckoning

"Our experience in Vietnam has been searingly recorded in both fiction and nonfiction, but no book about those years is quite like this one. Jedwin Smith's Our Brother's Keeper tells the story of one family that has lived with death by remembrance, and of a man who found redemption when he wanted revenge. It will break your heart, but change it, too." — Michael Skube, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in criticism

"I read Our Brother's Keeper in the span of an evening and found it deeply affecting and totally enthralling. This book is a haunting, gut-wrenching, and ultimately redemptive journey through time and the human heart. Magnificent." —Jack Kerley, author of The Hundredth Man


From the Author
Since the inception of our country, war's haunting scenario has never changed -- young men and women march off to the sound of the guns, confront battle's horrors, and are subsequently killed. In battle's aftermath, back on the home front, the slain combatant's family and friends are left with only the official government letter of condolence. Seldom, if ever, is the family told exactly what happened to their son or daughter; who his or her friends were; what really happened on that terrible day their son or daughter died. The who, what, why, when and how are always missing. All the family has to hold onto are shared grief and unanswered questions. My brother and best friend, Jeff, was KIA Vietnam on March 7, 1968. Although I had wanted to tell Jeff's story for decades, I found it impossible because I knew virtually nothing about his Vietnam service. This changed in February 2000 when, via the Internet, I managed to find Jeff's best friend, in whose arms my brother died. Finding one survivor of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, led to finding another. Before my journey was done, I found all eight of the gallent Marines who served with my brother. Unfortunately, the remaining 60 riflemen of Fox 2/4 died in combat. Through the reminiscences of these survivors I was able to put together my brother's entire 201-day tour of duty. And through the reminiscences of these survivors, a fractured family was brought back together. I wouldn't go so far as to call this book "the complete guide to emotional and spiritual healing," but it's a pretty good start. One thing is for certain -- this is a book unlike any you may have ever read before, the story of war's most common denominator, as told through the eyes of the survivors from both the home front and battle zone. It is a story that Americans have quietly, reverently, and resolutely embraced since 1776. Semper Fi.


From the Inside Flap
For some, the Vietnam War is a long, dark period of our history, one that is best forgotten. For the parents, brothers, and sisters of Marine Corps PFC Jeffrey Earl Smith, the war can never be forgotten. Seemingly on a whim, Jeff Smith joined the Marines and was sent to Vietnam in 1967. His death by a Vietnamese rocket attack in March 1968 was the catalyst that finally ended his parents' marriage and created a lost generation of Smith siblings. In Our Brother's Keeper, award-winning journalist Jedwin Smith, Jeffrey's older brother and a former Marine himself, shares a riveting family saga unlike anything you've read before.

Writing with passion, intensity, and immediacy, Jedwin Smith tells the tale of the years when, consumed by guilt, he spiraled into alcoholism, self-loathing, and a fury at the world that often manifested itself in the obsession to find and destroy the man who killed his brother. He reveals how Jeff's death drove each member of the Smith family into his or her own emotional turmoil and self-exile—and then shows how each eventually found a measure of peace in his or her life. As for the author, he shows how only love, patience, and unconditional faith saved him from self-destruction . . . and finally guided him toward the road to recovery.

In Our Brother's Keeper, Jedwin Smith examines who his brother was, how he died, and why his death has had such a devastating impact to this day. The book is both the story and the outcome of a quest that took the author across the United States to visit siblings he hadn't seen in decades as well as former Marines who had been at Jeff's side on that awful day so many years before. Finally, the journey took the author to Vietnam, where he confronted a former Viet Cong commander. The encounter was chilling, extraordinary, and life-changing.

Our Brother's Keeper is more than a moving and beautifully written family saga of the Vietnam War and its bitter and ongoing aftermath. It is also the story of how America has either been in denial or in recovery in many important ways ever since the Vietnam War. Most of all, it is an inspiring personal tale of loss and healing, anger and forgiveness, self-discovery—and the transcendent power of love.


From the Back Cover
Advance Praise for Our Brother's Keeper

"Beautifully written and extraordinarily poignant, Our Brother's Keeper is a Vietnam book like none other. The ghosts of Vietnam are finally starting to circle home, and this remarkable writer has given them voice with passion and resonance. I love Jedwin Smith's Fatal Treasure; Our Brother's Keeper is even closer to the heart." — Jeff Long, New York Times bestselling author of The Descent and The Reckoning

"Our experience in Vietnam has been searingly recorded in both fiction and nonfiction, but no book about those years is quite like this one. Jedwin Smith's Our Brother's Keeper tells the story of one family that has lived with death by remembrance, and of a man who found redemption when he wanted revenge. It will break your heart, but change it, too." — Michael Skube, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in criticism

"I read Our Brother's Keeper in the span of an evening and found it deeply affecting and totally enthralling. This book is a haunting, gut-wrenching, and ultimately redemptive journey through time and the human heart. Magnificent." —Jack Kerley, author of The Hundredth Man


About the Author
JEDWIN SMITH is a journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the author of the acclaimed Fatal Treasure: Greed and Death, Emeralds and Gold, and the Obsessive Search for the Legendary Ghost Galleon Atocha.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jedwin Smith's beloved younger brother Jeff joined the Marines and was sent to Vietnam in 1967. Jeff's death by a Vietnamese rocket attack in March 1968 was the catalyst that finally ended his parents' marriage and created a lost generation of Smith siblings. Some of Jedwin's brothers and sisters spiraled out of control into alcoholism, substance abuse, and obsession with their dead brother's memory, while Jedwin himself became obsessed with finding and killing his brother's killer. This moving and very personal memoir relates the nightmare Smith's family endured and the trials each of them faced before they could ultimately find a measure of peace in their lives, including the story of Jedwin's own recovery from rage and delusion.

Jedwin Smith (Lawrenceville, GA) is a journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly