Author J. A. Nunn returns with a sequel to his debut novel, The Stuff What Actually Is, chronicling the new adventures of young GI Mervyn Gower as he navigates his World War II posting to the Jim Crow South.

Mervyn Gower, a naive young Army draftee from an all-white immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles, believes the best way to prove he’s a “real” American is in combat. Assigned to a segregated Army base in the Jim Crow South in 1942, Gower soon finds himself in hot water after a drunken brawl. Instead of being demoted or dishonorably discharged, however, he’s given a post that not enough qualified Black GIs can fill and that few white soldiers want—leader of a squad of Black recruits.

After a false start, Gower impresses his company commander who then nominates Gower’s squad as the only Black troops to participate in field maneuvers in the desolate Louisiana bayou—an almost unheard of opportunity for Black GIs—where they’ll be filmed “in action” as part of a War Department effort to encourage more Black soldiers to volunteer and more white soldiers to accept them. But when one of his men goes AWOL, the search to find the runaway—dead or alive—brings Gower’s understanding of his men into focus and builds toward a shocking and brutal encounter he will never forget.

Inspired by real-life stories and backed by author J. A. Nunn’s thorough research, Mud Men picks up where The Stuff What Actually Is left off, continuing to weave together the threads of race, social inequity, and American identity that shaped a generation.