War Reporting for Cowards

the long version

Chris Ayres is a small-town boy, a hypochondriac, and a neat freak with an anxiety disorder. A 27-year-old reporter for The Times of London living in Los Angeles, the only thing he cares to be embedded in is celeb-studded after-parties. But somehow, he has a habit of ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time, whether it's a few blocks from the World Trade Center on September 11 or one cubicle over from an anthrax attack at The New York Post. When his boss asks him if he would like to go to Iraq, he doesn't have the guts to say no. This book is the Iraq War--with all of its horrors and absurdities--through the eyes of a "war virgin" who was there, in the heat of battle, and wishing he were anywhere but.--From publisher description.