Part family chronicle, part apocalyptic fable, American War is a vivid narrative of a country collapsing in on itself.' American War is a gripping, unsparing, and essential novel for dangerously contentious times.' 'El Akkad has created a brilliantly well-crafted, profoundly shattering saga of one family's suffering in a world of brutal power struggles, terrorism, ignorance, and vengeance. El Akkad's story of a family caught up in the collapse of an empire is as harrowing as it is brilliant, and has an air of terrible relevance in these partisan times.' Hell, it'd even feel off to call it dystopian, given that it's so few steps removed from our reality.' Despite its future setting, it'd feel wrong to call American War a work of science fiction. If violence and conflict feel distant, journalist Omar El Akkad's debut novel brings them home. has an innate (and depressingly timely) feel for the textural details of dystopia if only his grim near-future fantasy didn't feel so much like a crystal ball.' Justin Cronin, The New York Times Book Review The only comfort the story offers is that it's a work of fiction. 'Whether read as a cautionary tale of partisanship run amok, an allegory of past conflicts or a study of the psychology of war, American War is a deeply unsettling novel. Across these scarred pages rages the clash that many of us are anxiously speculating about in the Trump era: a nation riven by irreconcilable ideologies, alienated by entrenched suspicions. 'Follow the tributaries of today's political combat a few decades into the future and you might arrive at something as terrifying as Omar El Akkad's debut novel, American War. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. as haunting a postapocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy in The Road. Description NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle-this gripping debut novel asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself.

American war by omar el akkad