This is a book about desperation. That word has been so overused and misused that it has lost much of its impact. Too many stories about some local sports team “desperate” for a win, or some housewives “desperate” for . . . whatever that show was about. These pretenders have trivialized a word designed to be used only in the most extraordinary of circumstances. It should be a powerful word, reserved for the urgent and overwhelming feeling that one’s life is at risk. It’s for the truly existential threats (another misused word), to one’s country, one’s family, one’s friends, or one’s
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