The novel "The Naked and the Dead" describes the story of a platoon of young American soldiers as they traverse the Japanese-occupied island of Anopopei. Trapped in the confusion of hand-to-hand combat and constantly threatened by snipers, they are pushed to the limits of human endurance. With their only asset being the desire to survive, and with some faint dreams for the future, one by one they see their innermost hopes and deepest fears revealed under the relentless tension of battle. At just over twenty years old, Mailer takes part in World War II, fighting in the Pacific. "The Naked and the Dead," this stunning masterpiece of nightmarish realism, was published three years after the end of the war and immediately made Mailer famous worldwide.