With all the breathtaking imagery and lyric fury that characterizes his acclaimed poetry, Bruce Weigl explores the central experience of his life as a writer and a man: the Vietnam War, which tore his life apart and in return gave him his poetic voice. Raised in a working-class family among volatile and sometimes vicious people, Weigl knew nothing about Vietnam before he enlisted in 1967; but he saw a free ride out of his hometown, and he signed up. What he encountered in the war and in its enduring aftermath left a fundamental rift in his life. For Weigl, there was a before, and then one irrevocable after. Filled with incomprehensible guilt and a sense of worthlessness, he turns to alcohol, drugs, and women, living for years in a confused purgatory until he discovers salvation in poetry and in the love of a woman and a son. Yet while the stability and support of a family enable Weigl to reenter the world, it is only through a harrowing journey back to Vietnam, to adopt an eight-year-old daughter, that Weigl is finally able to heal himself. Moving from childhood to the war to a final act of compassion and hope, The Circle of Hanh is a powerful re-creation of a deeply haunted life and, ultimately, a stunning work of redemption.