Chet Green explains that even though he penned a novel, most of the events he describes really happened and that most of the descriptive details are accurate.

His new book, THE PLAY SOLDIER, is a gritty novel with a punch. It describes what life is like for a counterfeit hero who poses as a decorated ex-Marine and, to redeem himself, tries to join the French Foreign Legion but is rejected and then chases fulfillment as a conflict photographer.

The story explores what it is like to want to put meaning in your life as a soldier, even though you can’t be one. It describes the plight of a troubled man who dresses for the part, like an actor, to create the image he wants to portray and convey in the play of life–a problem of our times. Here is a story that talks directly to the negative side effects of too many stories of glory, including sanitized reporting, action video games and war movies. Here is what can happen when everyday life does not provide sufficient challenges to test a man.

With a flair for capturing the details of personal conflict in exotic places, Green also addresses the effects of racial, cultural and class division and depicts the ethos steeling the Foreign Legion’s way of life. He establishes and defines what drives men to seek encounters that are filled with great risk and danger, why they want to see action.