It Happened On the Way to War

“Fast-paced yet nuanced, honest, and profound, It Happened on the Way to War is an ideal selection for university summer reading lists.”—Molly Corbett Broad, President, American Council on Education

“Riveting. A beautifully written memoir that reads like a novel and reveals fundamental truths about good, evil, and our common humanity.”—Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone

“Every American should read this remarkable book by a remarkable man who fought as a Marine in Iraq while waging battle against poverty and violence in one of the world’s largest slums. Beautifully written, Barcott’s tale is cautionary—effecting real change in the world is never easy or cheap, and is often heartbreaking. But it is an equally inspirational story, showing that a small group of committed individuals, acting with courage, can make an enormous difference.”—Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War

“A tremendous story of the power of friendship, love, and the transforming grace of God.”—Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

"Rye Barcott has given us a truly amazing memoir—humane, harrowing, inspiring, and complex in its portrayal of an almost paradoxical accommodation between Eros and Thanatos. This is at least as much a compassionate and emboldening manifesto as it is a work of autobiography."—Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried

“Rye Barcott’s engaging and candid memoir on the catalytic power of participatory development shows us that, whether we are in the slums of the world’s biggest cities, in rural Haiti, or on college campuses, we can learn from Tabitha, Salim, and Rye—a nurse, a community organizer, and a young Marine living in urban poverty—about how to fight extreme privation and bring about lasting change.”—Dr. Paul Farmer, Professor, Harvard Medical School; Co-founder, Partners In Health

“Compelling. Former Marine Captain Rye Barcott demonstrates how our forces must today be capable of fighting and development in this important and revealing story of service on two fronts.”—Brigadier General H.R. McMaster, United States Army, author of Dereliction of Duty

“A must read for anyone interested in leadership. The solutions to our greatest challenges will be found by unlocking the potential of communities like Kibera."—Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google

“Gritty, powerful and profound.”—Lisa Mullins, Anchor, “The World"

“An unforgettable odyssey. We need more of these wonderful affirmative tales of how good can triumph in Africa, as it can anywhere.”—Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“This fascinating book is likely to change the way you view the world, and the impact you can make in it."—Mia Farrow

"Barcott, cofounder of the nongovernmental organization Carolina for Kibera (CFK), recounts the demands of serving as a Marine Corps officer while running a nascent nonprofit in this overwrought memoir. In 2000, as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, the author traveled to Kenya's notorious slum Kibera, in Nairobi, to study ethnic violence. The experience brought his 'terribly privileged' background into relief, and Barcott—along with Tabitha Atieno Festo, a nurse, and Salim Mohammed, a community organizer—launched a nonprofit to ferry resources to local leaders in the hopes that they could directly promote development and prevent violence. A year later, with CFK barely launched, Barcott was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer and began an exhausting 'balancing act' as he struggled to maintain oversight of CFK while deploying to Bosnia, Djibouti, and Iraq. The author's account of his military service is strained and riddled with inconsistencies: despite his desire 'to lead Marines in combat,' he angled for an intelligence billet; despite believing the Iraq war was 'unjust,' he volunteered to deploy. Barcott's service to Kibera and his country is laudable, but his memoir promises more insight and candor than it delivers."—Publishers Weekly