Bob Greene – författare

A highly personal and moving true story of friendship and remembrance from the New York Times bestselling author of Duty and Be True to Your School.

Growing up in Bexley, Ohio, Bob Greene and his four best friends -- Allen, Chuck, Dan, and Jack -- were inseparable. Of the four, Jack was Bob''s very best friend, a bond forged from the moment they met on the first day of kindergarten. They grew up together, got in trouble together, learned about life together -- and were ultimately separated by time and distance, as all adults are. But through the years Bob and Jack stayed close, holding on to the friendship that had formed years before.

Then, the fateful call came: Jack was dying. And in this hour of need, as the closest of all friends will do, Bob, Allen, Chuck, and Dan put aside the demands of their own lives, came together, and saw Jack through to the end of his journey.

Tremendously moving, funny, heart-stirring, and honest, And You Know You Should Be Glad is an uplifting exploration of the power of friendship to uphold us, sustain us, and ultimately set us free.

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska on troop trains, en route to Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen -- a place where soldiers could enjoy coffee, music, home-cooked food, magazines, and friendly conversation during a stopover that lasted only a few minutes. It provided homesick military personnel with the encouragement they needed to help them through the difficult times ahead. Every day of the war, the Canteen -- staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers from the community of twelve thousand -- was open from 5 a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. By war''s end they provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food to more than six million GIs.

Based on interviews with North Platte residents and the GIs who once passed through, Bob Greene unearths and reveals a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons.

A highly personal and moving true story of friendship and remembrance from the New York Times–bestselling author of Duty and Be True to Your School.

Growing up in Bexley, Ohio, population thirteen,zero, Bob Greene and his four best friends—Allen, Chuck, Dan, and Jack—were inseparable. Of the four, Jack was Bob''s very best friend, a bond forged from the moment they met on the first day of kindergarten. They grew up together, got into trouble together, learned about life together—and were ultimately separated by time and distance, as all adults are. But through the years Bob and Jack stayed close, holding on to the friendship that had formed years before.

Then the fateful call came: Jack was dying. And in this hour of need, as the closest of friends will do, Bob, Allen, Chuck, and Dan put aside the demands of their own lives, came together, and saw Jack through to the end of his journey.

Tremendously moving, funny, heart-stirring, and honest, And You Know You Should Be Glad is an uplifting exploration of the power of friendship to uphold us, sustain us, and ultimately set us free.

“Heartfelt.” —Chicago Tribune

“Greene learned the most significant lesson of a wonderful life: wealth is measured in friendships.” —Dallas Morning News

“To anyone who grew up with a group of close friends, it rings absolutely true.” —Ohioana Quarterly

A son pays tribute to his father and the generation that fought in World War II in this heartfelt New York Times–bestselling memoir.

“Bob Greene has written a lot of great stuff the past twenty-five years, but his best may be Duty. [Greene] interlaces a stirring tribute to World War II veterans with a moving portrait of how life has changed for them.” —San Diego Union-Tribune

When Bob Greene went home to central Ohio to be with his dying father, it set off a chain of events that led him to know his dad in a way he never had before—thanks to a quiet man who had changed the world. Greene’s father, a World War II soldier, often spoke of seeing the private, almost anonymous, man around town. He was Paul Tibbets. In 1945, at the age of twenty-nine, Tibbets assembled a secret team of one,800 American soldiers to carry out the single most violent act in the history of mankind. He piloted a plane to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where it dropped the atomic bomb.

On the morning after the last meal Greene ever ate with his father, he went to meet Tibbets. An unlikely friendship developed, allowing Greene to discover the ingrained sense of honor and duty of his father, and his father’s generation of soldiers, that he had never fully understood before. Duty is the story of three lives connected by history, proximity, and blood: a powerful tribute to the ordinary heroes of an extraordinary time. Here is a vivid new perspective on responsibility, empathy, love, and the concept of duty as it once was and always should be: quiet and form the heart. On every page you can hear the whisper of a generation and its children bidding each other farewell.

“Here is one of the most heartwarming books I''ve ever read. Anyone who remembers World War II will hang on every word. What a fabulous read! Run, don''t walk, to your favorite bookstore, and get this blockbuster.” —Ann Landers

“Duty will make you weep, then smile, then laugh, then weep again. It is a deeply human journey of time and generations. If you read only one book this year, this should be it.” —Dallas Morning News

“[Greene] delineates one of the most significant cultural divides in America—between the deeply dutiful World War II generation and its more cynical and radically individualistic descendants.” —New York Times Book Review

This New York Times bestseller shares the true story of a small Midwest town''s hospitality to U.S. soldiers traveling to the battlefields of World War II.

In search of “the best America there ever was,” award-winning journalist Bob Greene finds it in Nebraska where he discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons.

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen.

Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains community of only twelve,zero people provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time the war ended.

In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons.

“Bob Greene is a virtuoso of the things that bring journalism alive.” —Tom Wolfe

“Lovely . . . inspiring . . . uplifting . . . I was moved to tears, and you will be, too.” —Ann Landers