Thoroughly engrossing….We want to believe that Saddam Hussein was a monster, but reading this, you’ll learn that he was quite human—which is even more chilling. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in our recent war in Iraq, or in the heights and depths of human nature.
-Karl Marlantes, New York Times bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War 

"The Prisoner in His Palace" finds humanity in a singularly inhuman figure, Saddam Hussein. Through meticulous reporting and beau­tiful storytelling, Will Bardenwerper has crafted a portrait that is both deeply moving and deeply disturbing. This book challenges the tired constructs of "good versus evil" that have led us into so many ill­-conceived wars.
-Elliot Ackerman, author of Green on Blue and Waiting for Eden

In war, the enemy is always the "the other." What makes "The Prisoner in His Palace" so captivating is how Bardenwerper brilliantly juxtaposes the brutal acts that Saddam Hussein perpetrated against his own people, with the dignified, and even tender, manner in which the Iraqi dictator interacted with his American guards. What the book reveals is that our common humanity turns "the enemy" into someone quite unexpected.
-Peter Bergen, New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

Reminiscent of Truman Capote’s "In Cold Blood," Will Barden­werper’s "The Prisoner in His Palace" offers a riveting and harrowing exploration into the nature of evil and the mind of a murdering psychopath—but also into how even the execution of a guilty man can later haunt those involved in his death. . . . Like Capote before him, Bardenwerper brilliantly portrays not a cardboard villain but a complicated man who was unquestionably sadistic but also man­ifested flashes of generosity and compassion. . . . Bardenwerper has revealed one of the greatest little­-known war stories in Amer­ican history.
-Andrew Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of War Letters, Behind the Lines, and Operation Homecoming 

Offers shocking insights into the banality of evil….an Alice-In-Wonderland tumble through Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s dark psyche. Will Bardenwerper vividly exhumes some of the tyrant’s twisted brutalities—all true—and yet reveals the gritty humanity of Saddam through the eyes of the young American soldiers assigned to guard him in the last months before he is hanged. A disturbing and entirely captivating piece of literary journalism.
-Kai Bird, coauthor of the Pulitzer-winning American Prometheus and author of the New York Times bestseller The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

Will Bardenwerper has succeeded in writing a book about the Iraq War from a wholly new perspective. This superb account of the twelve men assigned to guard Saddam Hussein forces us to acknowledge that there can be honor and courage on all sides in war. Absolutism is for people who’ve never been there.
-Nathaniel Fick, author of the New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away

In the American imagination, Saddam Hussein functions as noth­ing more than a two­-dimensional despot, a monster who terrorized and gassed and desecrated his own people. He was. He did. Will Bardenwerper’s "The Prisoner in His Palace" reveals something else about Saddam, though, something less simple than that known caricature and certainly more troubling: he was a human being, a human like all of us, a human being with hopes and dreams and regrets that woke him in the dead of night. Saddam wrote poetry and longed for his family and treated the American soldiers tasked with guarding him during his trial with kindness and generosity of spirit. This is a brave and piercing book.
-Matt Gallagher, author of the novel Youngblood and Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War 

A moving and perception­-altering book that exposes how wrong we are in so much of what we assume about war. In the fifteen years that America has been at war we’ve imprisoned, injured, and killed thousands of foreign citizens. It’s time we got to know some of them. Will Bardenwerper introduces us to a name we know well, but a story about which we know little. Saddam Hus­sein’s execution was not just about the death of a tyrant. It’s about the Americans who were tasked with guarding him, interrogating him, and preparing him for his death. . . . Mr. Bardenwerper forces us to turn our gaze not only on those we have killed but on those who were there to see the task done.
-Eric Fair, Pushcart Prize–winning essayist and author of the memoir Consequence 

Through meticulous research and a keen eye for detail, Barden­werper does the near impossible: convinces the reader to empa­thize with Saddam Hussein during his sad final days. "The Prisoner in His Palace" is a deeply human book, and though we all know the ending, I couldn’t put it down.
-Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk and All the Ways We Kill and Die 

A bracing account of Saddam Hussein’s final months through the eyes of those who guarded and interrogated him—eyes that are uncomfortably opened to the complexity of evil. Reminiscent of twentieth­-century Nazi character portraits such as Gitta Sereny’s "Into That Darkness," Bardenwerper’s "The Prisoner in His Palace" will be many things to many people. To this writer and combat veteran, it is an exhilarating, extraordinary, and damning look in the mirror.
-Adrian Bonenberger, author of Afghan Post 

An astonishing, riveting story. . . . As twelve young American guards spend their days in the same room with this brutal gangster­ killer, a chilling, Shakespearean portrait emerges. Intriguingly, we meet a man who, while sometimes manipulative and petty, is also avuncular, joking, charming, wistful, and physically affectionate. There is even a scene of the Beast of Baghdad hugging an Amer­ican soldier in a moment of tenderness. This is an unforgettable, essential read.
-William Doyle, author of A Soldier’s Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq and PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy 

The Prisoner in His Palace" is an important contribution to the liter­ature from America’s 9/11 wars. Will Bardenwerper has written a concise and engrossing account of the final days of Saddam Hus­sein. The stories of the American soldiers who guarded the Iraqi leader serve as a sharp reminder of war’s complexities, contradic­tions, and costs.
-J. Kael Weston, author of The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan 

“The Prisoner in His Palace" is a searing, beautifully crafted explo­ration of humankind’s capacity for both boundless savagery and awe-­inspiring perseverance. By tracking down and listening to the soldiers who stood watch over Saddam Hussein during the dic­tator’s final days, Will Bardenwerper has done far more than just commit a heroic act of journalism; he has also created an extraor­dinary work of history that should be read by all who seek to understand how evil can flourish, and how it can be defeated.
-Brendan I. Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us and Now the Hell Will Start 

Bardenwerper’s examination of how soldiers, trained to focus on the inhumanity of the enemy, struggle to frame and reframe that inhumanity, is the focus of "The Prisoner in His Palace." The book’s action will pull you along like any great military adventure, but bubbling underneath is an absorbing and sometimes heartbreak­ing survey of young men grappling with a moral certitude that begins to shift below the desert sands they’re standing on.
-Tim Townsend, author of Mission at Nuremberg

PRAISE FOR
Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America

BUY BOOK

A Library Journal Best Book of the Year • Finalist for 2025 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

“[Bardenwerper] recounts what was lost in Batavia when minor-league baseball left town—and what was found when a new squad bearing the old name was established in its place.... This is a story about sporting competition, but really it is a tale about community.”
--Wall Street Journal

“A romantic look at the magic of small-town baseball.... In Homestand, journalist Will Bardenwerper finds hope in the people and community around a former minor league baseball team.”
--Washington Post

“An informative, often emotional account of small-town baseball and 'the special group of people' on the field, behind the scenes, and in the stands 'who help keep it alive one summer at a time.'”
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Will Bardenwerper’s Homestand isn’t just a great baseball story, but a sensitive and searching look at the ways Americans have built up community, as well as the forces that tear it down. In one small town, he finds a potent symbol for the state of American civic life, and a guide to how we might protect it.”
--Phil Klay, award-winning author of Redeployment and Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War

“This is a lovely, original, and very timely book. In telling the story of one small town and its beloved Muckdogs baseball team, Will Bardenwerper seamlessly tells the story of American setbacks, and possibilities, in our times. Homestand will reveal more about the prospects for America than 100 news stories about politics, and will be a lot more fun.”
--James Fallows, bestselling co-author of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“This much needed book both celebrates the significant social role played by minor league baseball to small town America for over a century, but more critically eviscerates Major League Baseball's greedy dismantling of this unique institution. Owners pay hundreds of millions of dollars to their stars, but refuse to pay a pittance to the teams that serve as a development ground for those players.”
--Ron Shelton, director of Bull Durham and author of The Church of Baseball

“Minor league baseball remains the purest expression of what some of us still consider the national pastime. In Homestand, Will Bardenwerper tells the moving story of the rise and fall and tentative resurrection of this unique American institution through the lens of one season in one small town. Even readers who don't know a batboy from a cut-off man will find themselves rooting for the Muckdogs—and loving this book.”
--Christopher Beha, author of The Index of Self-Destructive Acts

“At a time when so many economic and social forces have been undermining America's small cities, from e-commerce to media consolidation, the institution of minor-league baseball remained as a crucial pillar of local identity. Homestand is a deeply reported depiction of what MLB's elimination of dozens of minor league teams will mean for communities across the country. This is an affecting glimpse into a corner of overlooked America.”
--Alec MacGillis, author of Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America

“For anyone who's ever walked into a baseball stadium and felt the greatest meaning lies in the smallest of moments, Will Bardenwerper masterfully articulates why. Homestand is an excavation of the remnants of small-town America, an absorbing shotgun journey alongside the regular people coping with yet another cruel downsizing.”
--Evan Drellich, senior writer for The Athletic and author of Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess

“What Major League Baseball didn’t know, or care about, is that it didn’t cut its minor-league game from just the ballparks, but also the coffee shops, the water coolers, the beer joints, the Fourth of July parades, the state fairs, the childhoods and the sunsets. What a shame. In the wonderful and lyrical Homestand, Will Bardenwerper invites us to fill our hearts (and plastic cups), to stand beside our neighbors, to root for the home team and to remember why it mattered, one more time.”
--Tim Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Imperfect with Jim Abbott and The Tao of the Backup Catcher with Erik Kratz

“More than a book about baseball, Homestand acts as a celebration of local community and a protest against the corporate and technological take over now threatening every corner of American life. Featuring a wonderful cast of idiosyncratic characters like Popcorn Bob and the Onion Queen of Elba, New York, Bardenwerper fuses the unflinching, clear-eyed prose of an investigative journalist with the old-fashioned whiskey-soaked poetry of classic sportswriting. We see the games, we taste the beer, we feel the chill of night creep up our collar as the sun goes down, and hold our breath when the batter steps to the plate, sets his feet, eyes the pitcher and dreams of greatness.”
--Michael Patrick F. Smith, author of The Good Hand:A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown

“This is not really a book about baseball, though baseball fans will enjoy it. Rather, it is a well-written paean to a sense of community that is now sadly in danger of being lost in America. Read Homestand, and savor it while you still can.”
--Robert D. Putnam, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School and author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

“Bardenwerper is on a quest to see if the country he defended--while serving in the US Army during the Iraq War—still exists out there, past the corporate takeovers and political division. The result is a book that is part business expose, part love letter to small town, and as a native son of Western New York, I can tell you he nails his portrait of the place. Homestand is an Our Town for minor league baseball.”
--Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows

“A deep and emphatic look at communities, and a very American game, trying to cope with and overcome powerful external forces that only see profits and have forgotten the transcendent in life, and in baseball.”
—Chris Arnade, author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America

"Homestand is an intimate, deeply reported portrait of a town bonded for a century by the love of baseball. It’s also a welcome reminder that, at a time when our communities are pulled apart by politics and culture—and diminished by the soul-sucking, business-first ethos of the distant major leagues—it’s still possible to unite around something as simple as watching a bunch of college kids on a team called the Muckdogs play on a warm summer night."
--Stefan Fatsis, author of Wild and Outside: How a Renegade Minor League Revived the Spirit of Baseball in America's Heartland and A Few Seconds of Panic: A Sportswriter Plays in the NFL

"Homestand, a title with deeper meaning than at first glance, is a wonderful exploration of far more than baseball in a small town. It's a story about values, community, and the troubling American landscape we've created that has sacrificed both for the sake of cash."
--Brian Alexander, author of Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town and The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town

"This book (Homestand) is like a love story of baseball and a love story of America, and also about how money and greed can corrupt both of those things, but finally how the soul of America is still there."
--Jocko Willink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win

"A home run of a book.... [Homestand] blends game details with insights into larger stories about struggling communities and a changing world.
--Washington Independent Review of Books

"Any reader with a heart for baseball is apt to start crying on Page 1, and to cry again on the last page, with plenty of misty eyes in between.... Homestand is a beautiful work of melancholy, because it’s a heartfelt effort to hold onto beauty in a world of loss."
--Washington Free-Beacon

"Combining social commentary with heartfelt storytelling, [Bardenwerper] captures eccentric fans, passionate locals, and the bittersweet clash between corporate greed and grassroots love for the game. Both baseball fans and general readers will find this a poignant portrait of small-town America."
--Arlington Magazine

“Lively and well-crafted chapters . . . . Bardenwerper’s “Homestand” is a balm for weary souls.”
--FW Journal Gazette

“Homestand successfully combines a look at a small-town community with the one thing that continues to bring them together: a love of baseball. It’s a five-star read.”
--Auburn Citizen

"A fast-paced narrative that alternates between snappy game coverage, heartwarming small-town traditions, and grim analysis of deindustrialization's impact on American communities."
--Shelf Awareness

"It serves certain billionaires to make American politics as abrasive as possible, and it serves different billionaires to uproot and move minor league teams, force out the mom-and-pop's that make them great, and sanitize every aspect of America's pasttime. In Homestand, Will Bardenwerper goes and finds out what America is losing in the process. It'll tell you more about this country than any number of stat sheets or news network."
--Esquire

“An empathetic writer who understands the stakes of what’s happening in Batavia and what it portends for the rest of the country, Bardenwerper is the perfect chronicler of this shrinking slice of Americana.”
--Air Mail

"Baseball lovers will be enamored with the storytelling and conclusions, but one doesn’t have to be an enthusiastic sports fan to gain insight into the human soul from Bardenwerper’s book. Consider this resource a must-purchase."
--Library Journal (starred)

“Bardenwerper presents a scathing indictment of the corporatization of Major League Baseball (MLB) while simultaneously immersing readers in the remarkable resilience and joy of small-town baseball in Batavia, New York.... Filled with eccentric characters.... Bardenwerper captures a little piece of America’s pastime in its best light.”
--Booklist

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