Author Terrell shares stories of war tonight

Some of the world's best literature has involved stories of war. From "The Iliad" to "War and Peace," "The Killer Angels" to "The Things They Carried," writers have described the horrors of war in both imagined and remembered ways.

Whitney Terrell offers a combination of both. While serving as an embedded reporter for such publications as the Washington Post, Slate and National Public Radio, Terrell twice witnessed U.S. military action in Iraq. His reporting led to his writing "The Good Lieutenant: A Novel."

Here's what the Publisher's Weekly reviewer had to say about "The Good Lieutenant": "(Terrell) critiques the follies of the Iraq War and the adamantine nature of the military mind-set. Terrell ('The King of Kings County') shows us how soldiers think and address one another with a stinging combination of military argot and pop culture references. The book’s last line echoes the title of one of the first novels about modern warfare, Thomas Boyd’s 'Through the Wheat' (1923), to which this novel is an entirely worthy successor."

Terrell, who now teaches at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, will read from his book at 7 tonight at Spark Central, located in Kendall Yards at 1214 W. Summit Parkway (across from Spa Paradiso). The event is part of Gonzaga University's 2016-2017 Visiting Writers Series, and is sponsored by the Gonzaga Center for Public Humanities. Terrell will be joined by a panel of student veterans.

The event is free and open to the public.