Overview

A military memoir by a biracial child of refugees and survivors, Roadside is about life and death, about family lost and gained, and about America, as a dream and a reality. It’s about the roads one takes to leave home and find it again.

As a half-Black, half-Korean kid in Campbell, California, Dylan Park-Pettiford never really fit in, so he and his little brother Rory became joined at the hip. But after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, swept up in patriotism, Dylan enlisted in the US Air Force and was sent to Iraq, and the brothers were separated.

There Dylan’s days alternated between boredom and terror, and rare moments of levity and learning came thanks to an Iraqi boy named Brahim. Like Rory, Brahim was wise beyond his years, and he and Dylan bonded as much over rap music as about life. Over the following year, Dylan would bring Brahim food and toiletries to keep him going; Brahim would bring intel to keep Dylan and his friends alive. When they said goodbye at the end of Dylan’s tour of duty, he knew it was for the last time.

Or was it?

Dylan returned to a world that had moved on without him. He would go through a soul-crushing divorce, a bout of homelessness, and struggles with prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health. Eventually, he caught a few breaks and overcame the odds—until the violence Dylan thought he’d left in the Middle East followed him home.

Just when his life was at its darkest, fate intervened again, but this time to orchestrate an impossible reunion. In a world marred by a seemingly endless wave of negativity, this story of love, loss, and brotherhood may offer a faint glimmer of hope as we face an uncertain future.

Reviews

“Dylan writes his own story with stunning power and poetry, and makes a clear case that long-term survival for anyone can only be found in the deep connections we make to the people in our lives. This is one hell of a powerful, unputdownable read that will no doubt find comparisons to other great titles in the pantheon of war like Dispatches, Jarhead, and The Things They Carried.” —Rick Cleveland, Emmy-winning writer, The West Wing and Six Feet Under

"A gripping memoir" — Foreword Reviews

“Roadside captures the gritty reality of combat and its aftermath, laying bare the raw essence of war. This unflinching account is an odyssey of endurance, delving into the heart of what it means to serve, survive, and return. Highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand the true cost of conflict.” —Colby Buzzell, author of My War: Killing Time in Iraq and Lost in America

“An unsparing and devastating account of the wars being fought for the soul of both Iraq and America. With grace, humility, and more than a touch of wit, Park-Pettiford maps the parallels between his ancestral generational trauma and the trauma that has spanned multiple generations of US soldiers from the Korean War to our current forever wars. Above all, Roadside is a much-needed reminder that inside almost every phony tough guy in uniform, every nihilistic killer in Uncle Sam’s war machine, is a good kid desperately clawing to get out.” —Miles Lagoze, author of Whistles from the Graveyard and director of Combat Obscura

“An indelible story of war and survival. Roadside is a portrait of America, its wars, and the kids who fight them. It is also a map of the funny, tortured, and heartbreaking journey they must undertake if they want to return home.” —Elliot Ackerman, award-winning author of On Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning

“Roadside is a sharp, bright-eyed reckoning with war, identity, and the absurdity of trying to fit back into a world that never really fit to begin with. Park-Pettiford navigates the long, strange road of reintegration—not with solemn nods to heroism, but with dark humor, raw honesty, and an eye for the moments of grace that appear when you least expect them. From the heat of Iraq to the neon glow of roadside motels, from family ghosts to barstool confessions, Roadside is a memoir about survival, contradiction, and finding your own way home—on your own terms.” —Matt Young, author of Eat the Apple

Author Biography

Dylan Park-Pettiford is a writer/director from the San Francisco Bay Area. His work includes writing for a forthcoming spinoff of the popular detective series Bosch, the courtroom drama All Rise, and the Ron Howard-produced military comedy 68 Whiskey. He’s a former AMC Network writing fellow and a participant/mentor in the Writer’s Guild of America Veterans Writing Project. Dylan was a contributing author in the New York Times bestselling books The Moth Presents: Occasional Magic and How to Tell a Story. He’s also penned several Marvel comics. Following his military service, Dylan returned to school and received his BA in film from Arizona State University before attending the University of Southern California for graduate school. He now calls Los Angeles home.