One Man In

Before you opened this book, what did you picture when someone said 'special forces soldier'? Tell us the first image that came to mind, and whether the voice on the page matched it.

Where were you reading this, and did you need to put it down for a minute at any point? What did you do with yourself during that pause?

Craighead writes about training as the thing that carries you when thinking stops. What is something you have practiced so often that your body would know what to do even if your mind went blank? Tell us about it.

So much of this book is about ordinary people caught in an ordinary Tuesday, at a desk, in a cafe, on a lunch break. Which of those small everyday details stayed with you most, and why do you think it lodged there?

The author is often funny and self-deprecating about himself in the middle of something terrible. How did that humor land for you, comforting, jarring, both? Did it change how close you felt to him?

Nairobi in this book is a city that was living its normal life that morning. What did you find yourself wanting to know more about, the city, the people in the complex, the neighbors who helped? What made you curious rather than just alarmed?

This is a book about a man who ran toward something alone and then had to live inside the rest of his life. What did it stir in you about the costs that arrive quietly, long after a crisis is over, in your own life or in someone you love?

By the last pages, what did you want for Christian Craighead as a person, separate from what he did that day? If you could put one kind thing in a letter to him, what would it be?