J. Malcolm Garcia

❝ Ever since I first read Mr. Garcia's journalism I have admired his bravery and accuracy. This work reminds me of György Konrád‘s great novella The Case Worker.❞

❝ Based on the 14 years Garcia spent working in social services in the Bay Area, “Out of the Rain” features an ensemble cast of profoundly imperfect characters — shelter clients and staffers alike — struggling with addiction and homelessness, budget cuts and bureaucratic complacency. It’s not an upbeat book, but it’s a very honest one.❞

❝ These extraordinary stories offer a rare and intimate view of America's longest conflict, and invite us to share the everyday joys and sufferings of war-weary Afghans. J Malcolm Garcia is the empathetic bridge our world needs, and an essential chronicler of our times.❞

It takes a unique combination of moral seriousness, physical courage and wild honesty to bear witness to war's devastation and be able to convey to those who weren't there what it was like. Lucky for us, J. Malcolm Garcia is such a writer. His tremendous book about ordinary Afghans trying to endure two decades of conflict and occupation deserves a wide readership.❞

❝ J. Malcolm Garcia's The Khaarijee is a beautifully written book. The intimacy of Garcia's reflections on life and Afghanistan, combined with his flash-bang prose, gives readers the much-desired, but rarely achieved, sensation of being inside a writer's head. Garcia's honesty makes The Khaarijee an irresistible read.❞

❝ J. Malcolm Garcia is a journalist with a poet's soul. His account of the war in Afghanistan is full of the subtle betrayals and acts of faith that any witness to war must bear. The Khaarijee is full of a sorrowful hope. This is one of the finest accounts of shattered families and lives in a war-torn country and the desire by one individual who hopes beyond hope for nothing more than to save a few lives.❞

❝ Highly engaging. As for its potential classroom use, the book is best as inspiration and exemplar for the advanced student of the writer’s craft. Its style is not one that a fledgling journalist could emulate in either form or substance. The strength of What Wars Leave Behind is its demonstration of how a journalist can capture detail and weave dialog to bring home a point rich with humanity and emotion-lending inspiration and reality to the potential power of the written word and the struggles that must be faced to attain it.❞

❝ Timely and compelling, Garcia writes with great empathy, and forces us to consider the most relevant question of our time: what kind of country do we want to be? A nation that cares for our war veterans, or one that deports them into the unknown? This book is utterly of the moment, and captures our country's zeitgeist perfectly.❞

❝ A textured, wide-ranging, and often moving investigation into the moral questions raised by the little-understood nexus between immigration policy and veterans affairs.❞

❝ Garcia is an exceptionally powerful voice on behalf of the people about whom he writes.❞

❝ These in-depth profiles cast light on often-overlooked subjects: refugees, prisoners, blue-collar workers.❞

❝ Studs Terkel Prize–winning journalist Garcia tells 11 stories about people harmed by corporations, judges, and governments, with deep empathy and incredible attention ... Garcia respectfully presents the realities his subjects are facing from their own perspectives, and he has a gift for polishing the story of a life until its heart shines through. This humane, urgent work will move readers.❞

❝ Compassionate, memorable tales from a journalist who understands the significance of revealing the inner lives of marginalized individuals.❞

❝ Garcia delves into the inner lives of his subjects, channeling each person’s distinctive voice, unfiltered. We can hope the fruit of all this grief, now shared, will evoke not just outrage but also empathy and compassion.❞

❝ Garcia is an exceptionally powerful voice on behalf of the people about whom he writes. As he illustrates the results of America’s military adventuring, Garcia not only takes us to the physical space of the people who are the victims of our drone attacks, our bombs, and our bullets, but he also goes where few nonfiction writers have the skill to venture—he takes us inside their heads.❞