Is there an audiobook of The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose?

Yes. The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Martha Raddatz.

Is The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose on Kindle Unlimited?

No. The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 7, 2026.

The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose by Martha Raddatz book cover for the Book of the Day biography book review

Our score

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDMay 2026

Genres

Non-Fiction Biography War

Themes

Courage as sustained practice, not a single momentPost-9/11 service and its lasting costMilitary families and the work of waitingRecovery, rebuilding, and second acts after injury

The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose

Name: The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose
Price: 16.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Martha Raddatz

Martha Raddatz

ABC News veteran Martha Raddatz gathers a dozen portraits of post-9/11 service members and the people who love them. It's narrative nonfiction about endurance: what pushes ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and what they keep carrying long after the moment itself has passed.

The Review

Our take

Raddatz has spent twenty-five years standing close to the people in this book, and that long acquaintance is its spine. She doesn't write the military as an abstraction or a policy fight. She writes specific people on their specific worst days, then keeps following them into the years that come after, which is usually where the real story lives. A naval officer survives the Pentagon on 9/11, and the day reorganizes everything that follows. A Marine lowers himself down a rope under fire to reach a wounded officer in the mountains of Afghanistan. A surgeon rethinks how brain trauma gets treated in a war zone, because the old methods are saving no one. These aren't only adrenaline scenes. Raddatz cares about what's left once the adrenaline drains out.

What makes the book sturdier than the usual roll call of valor is the way it's built. Every chapter stands alone as a profile, but she keeps braiding the families back in, until the book is about marriage and parenting and the slow grind of recovery as much as it's about combat. The spouse who waits. The kid who knows a parent mostly through a screen. The veteran building a civilian life from scratch after an IED erased the old one. She gives all of that the same weight she gives the firefights, and that's the quiet argument underneath everything: courage isn't one moment, it's a practice you sustain, and most of it happens with nobody watching and no medal at the end.

Her prose is clean and reportorial. She trusts the facts to carry the feeling, and they do. There's a vein of humor in it too, the gallows wit of people doing impossible jobs, and it keeps the whole thing from curdling into reverence. She lets her subjects be funny and stubborn and sometimes flat wrong, which is much harder to pull off than worship and far more convincing. You believe these people because she lets them stay people.

What you come away with is something solid about resilience. Not that these men and women are superhuman, but that they made particular decisions under pressure, the kind most of us never get tested hard enough to know whether we'd make. That's the idea the title hints at, and the book actually earns it. The profiles rhyme and amplify each other, so the weight piles up past anything a single chapter could hold on its own. By the last one, the pattern she's been tracking, the cost and the choice and the long aftermath, has turned into an argument you feel before you can quite name it.

Why you should read

Fans of grounded military narrative nonfiction over policy analysis
Anyone interested in veterans' recovery and family resilience
Readers who appreciate reporting built on long-term familiarity
Those who want the human cost behind the uniform

What to expect

Standalone profiles that accumulate into a larger argument
Clean reportorial prose, no sentimental excess
Combat scenes balanced with long aftermaths and family life
Streaks of gallows humor amid the gravity

This is reporting that understands the gap between honoring people and flattering them. Raddatz never mixes the two up, and the book is steadier and more honest for it.

Reviewed by Ellis · Updated June 26, 2026 · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose?: Yes. The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Martha Raddatz.
Listen to The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose audiobook?: The The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose audiobook runs 12 hr 30 min.
Is The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose on Kindle Unlimited?: No. The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 7, 2026.
How much does The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $16.99, Hardcover $22.39. Prices as of August 26, 2026 at 3:46 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose about?: Raddatz has spent twenty-five years standing close to the people in this book, and that long acquaintance is its spine. She doesn't write the military as an abstraction or a policy fight. She writes specific people on their specific worst days, then keeps following them into the years that come…
Is The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose worth reading?: We scored The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose 4.6 out of 5. ABC News veteran Martha Raddatz gathers a dozen portraits of post-9/11 service members and the people who love them. It's narrative nonfiction about endurance: what pushes ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and what they keep carrying long after the moment itself has…