While Sgt. Francis D. Sommer was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, his father stood on a street corner in Kansas City with an antiwar sign. Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home reconciles that seeming contrast in a courageous dive into the personal cost of America’s wars. Fusing his eloquent meditations on nature, art, and grief with the political and social backdrop of these wars, Robert F. Sommer exposes the disconnect between the world of war and the universe of no-war in a nation that often seems preoccupied only with amusing itself. He skillfully weaves a compelling narrative throughout these essays in the finely-honed prose of a master craftsman.