A fictional Jarheada novel that artfully and viscerally conveys the emotional toll of contemporary warfare's random terror. In scenes that flicker with the restless intensity of an unguarded flame, we enter the life of a young American member of the Israeli Defense Force. Patrolling the streets of Gaza in the dead of night, playing a high-stakes off-duty game of Risk with his fellow soldiers, making passionate love to the wife of his best friend, Nathan Falk lives each moment with an increasing awareness of the arbitrary boundary between life and death. As MATCHES uncoils its searing tale of betrayal and guilt in love and war, the novel offers a revealing portrait of the damage war does to the soul of a man.