In a stunning new Byliner Original, Anthony Swofford, former Marine Corps sniper and bestselling author of “Jarhead,” tells the story of the life and shocking death of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. It is also the first account of the troubled life of Kyle's alleged murderer, a former Marine who managed to succeed where countless Iraqi insurgents had failed.

Known as the deadliest sniper in American military history, Kyle was credited with 160 kills—a record of dispatch that led Iraqi fighters to tag him with the nickname “the Devil of Ramadi” and place a $20,000 bounty on his head. During four tours in Iraq, Kyle was shot twice, survived six IED attacks, and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star a combined seven times. Among his fellow soldiers he was legendary, a hero who saved lives even as he, in the words of one Navy SEAL, “killed more people than smallpox.”

Kyle thrived at war, eventually chronicling his exploits in his own bestseller, “American Sniper,” a blood-soaked and unapologetic account of dealing death in Iraq. Like so many veterans, however, he faced personal demons when he left the military. With the insight and sensitivity that only a soldier can have, Swofford probes Kyle's return from the excitement of war to the mundane realities of civilian life. “Was he perfectly adjusted to the stark reality of how he had achieved his fame?” Swofford wonders. “Had he really been able to kill that many men and feel no guilt?”

By the end of his life, however, Kyle appeared to have discovered a new vocation ministering to traumatized vets, which, in a painfully tragic irony, led to his fateful trip to a Texas shooting range in February.

Death of an “American Sniper” is an empathetic and knowing account of a soldier's life, as well as a thoughtful examination of the war-shattered man who confessed to his murder.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony Swofford is the author of the memoirs “Jarhead” and “Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails” and the novel “Exit A.” A film adaptation of “Jarhead,” directed by Sam Mendes, was released in 2005. Swofford’s writing has appeared in «Harper’s,” “The New York Times Magazine,” and many other places. He has taught at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and Lewis and Clark College. He is currently at work on a new novel and is developing a dramatic television series for HBO.

PRAISE FOR ANTHONY SWOFFORD’S “JARHEAD”:

«A bayonet in the eye … brutal and unforgettable.” —The Sacramento Bee

“A searing contribution to the literature of combat.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

«A brutally honest memoir … gut-wrenching frontline reportage.” —Entertainment Weekly

«An unflinching portrayal of the loneliness and brutality of modern warfare and sophisticated analyses of—and visceral reactions to—its politics.” —Publishers Weekly