"The Things They Carried is a masterful novel of the Vietnam War that has been called the greatest war novel ever written. The soldiers carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb, since its publication, "The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of american literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.