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by Omar El Akkad (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (6,271)
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Get 5% off $50 with eligible NAB Cards. Enter code NAB5 at checkout. Discount by Amazon. TermsAn audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle.
'[American War] creates as haunting a post-apocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road" Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.
Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during war - part of the Miraculous Generation - now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past, his family's role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others.
A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle - a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself.
MORE PRAISE FOR AMERICAN WAR
"A dystopian vision of a future United States undone by civil war and plague." Kirkus
"An extraordinary novel." Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
"a work of a singular, grand, brilliant imagination ... a warning shot across the bow of the United States." David Means, author of Hystopia
"[An] exciting debut . . . what sets this impressive book apart from other dystopian novels is the fully realised plausibility of the scenario El Akkad's created, the roots of which can be all too easily identified in the world around us today ... As diverting a read as this engrossing novel is, American War should no doubt also be read as a cautionary tale." Independent
"[American War] creates as haunting a post-apocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road, and as devastating a look at the fallout that national events have on an American family as Philip Roth did in The Plot Against America . . . El Akkad has written a novel that not only maps the harrowing effects of violence on one woman and her family, but also becomes a disturbing parable about the ruinous consequences of war on ordinary civilians." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"American War is the most impressive new novel I've read this year. Set in a scarily plausible future scarred by civil strife and climate change, it's thrilling for the sheer transporting force of its storytelling. Its lasting power, though, lies in its complex account of moral disintegration, both individual and societal." Garth Greenwell, 'Best holiday reads 2017', Guardian
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They didn’t understand, they just didn’t understand. You fight the war with guns, you fight the peace with stories.
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What was safety, anyway, but the sound of a bomb falling on someone else’s home?
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She soon learned that to survive atrocity is to be made an honorary consul to a republic of pain.
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An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle – a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself.
From the Publisher
Omar El Akkad is an award-winning journalist and author who has travelled around the world to cover many of the most important news stories of the last decade. His reporting includes dispatches from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. He is a recipient of a National Newspaper Award for investigative reporting and the Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Journalists, as well as three National Magazine Award honorable mentions. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
About the Author
Omar El Akkad is an award-winning journalist and author who has traveled around the world to cover many of the most important news stories of the last decade. His reporting includes dispatches from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. He is a recipient of a National Newspaper Award for investigative reporting and the Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Journalists, as well as three National Magazine Award honorable mentions. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Product details
ASIN : B01MS5VKLC
Publisher : Picador
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : 28 March 2017
Language : English
File size : 2.7 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 408 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1760552732
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: 163,250 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)488 in Political Fiction (Books)
552 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)
728 in Dystopian Fiction
Customer Reviews:
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (6,271)
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From Australia
Lena
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Fantastic!
Reviewed in Australia on 12 June 2026
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
I read this book as I absolutely liked his most recent book although book is not my genre.
I am so glad I read this book as it is a work of a genius and such a work of literary excellence.
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derek
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Australia on 5 June 2017
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Provoking
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P. Gunning
5.0 out of 5 stars stunningly compelling.
Reviewed in Australia on 10 December 2025
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
This book is possibly prophetic, definitely based on stuff that has happened to real people in a lot of places. Main character is a bit one dimensional but that doesn’t spoil the book. I’ll think about this one for a while I expect.
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Crazy rat lady
3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing like Handmaids
Reviewed in Australia on 14 January 2019
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
I bought this book as I had read Handmaids Tale and is was apparently like it. It isn’t. It is very different and I found it a little dull
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Kairo Byrne
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in Australia on 31 August 2022
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This story reminds me of Coulson Whitehead. Set in the future but visions of Guantanamo or the Iraq wars or any major conflict and its affects on simple people.
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Noe
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in Australia on 17 May 2017
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An amazing story of an America at war with itself again in the future. Couldn't put the book down. Amazing
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Bel
1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the time or effort
Reviewed in Australia on 14 March 2019
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We were discussing this at book club and someone else suggested only reading the first 15% and the last 15% to the people who hadn't read it. I wish I could go back in time and take that advice.
Having read all of it: I wish it’d had a better editor - someone really ruthless because it was like the author couldn't decide and so had to pick EVERYTHING at every opportunity. Why focus on one type of torture and its effects on the human condition when we can have them all? So it ended up a discordant mess with zero subtlety. There is also no nuance in any of the characters, nothing relatable. Most of them could have been replaced with attractive lamps and not substantially changed the plot.
The relationships in this are all seriously messed up too. Like, if you're going to have one character accuse another character of rape on the basis of inability to give informed consent (due to medical incapacity) - don't expect me to be okay with you just dumping that on your huge pile of unresolved, never again mentioned things.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Skip the talking heads, read this instead
Reviewed in Japan on 5 April 2018
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If you want a real understanding of the process by which apparently ordinary people become fanatics, dedicated to the destruction of an enemy without caring that it means their own destruction - or even the destruction of their friends and family - as well, then read this book.
The clear-eyed exposition of the radicalization of an unremarkable young woman in this book should be required reading for everyone who has ever wondered how and why suicidal killers come to be, as well as how they are cynically used by those with political ends.
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Ali
4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
Reviewed in the United Arab Emirates on 3 August 2020
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I loved the story
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Tony Castano
5.0 out of 5 stars A provocative book that imagines a whole new America at the end of the 21st century
Reviewed in Italy on 11 January 2018
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I didn't have high expectations for this book, I didn't know the author (who in fact is at his first job) and I didn't know what it was about, so reading it involved me and surprised me.
Omar El Akkad envisions a new world, a new America, a new civil war and new balances. As usual, I try to mention something without 'spoilers', I hope I succeed.
We are in a world, or rather an America, with new balances at the end of the 21st century, with new problems and internal conflicts, which today perhaps even seem snubbed but which at a certain point take on such importance as to become triggers. The new problems are rising seas, extreme weather conditions and terrorism that has mutated into bioterrorism. In addition, power seems to derive from the control of fossil fuels, with Asian and Middle Eastern powers on the rise compared to a world that so far seemed to be American-centric.
The protagonist of the book is called Sarat, we met him as a child, with a family that wants to migrate to the north due to the poor conditions of their Louisiana. It is strange to think of an America so un' American ', which becomes a place of escape and not of arrival, with atrocities and torture, difficult to conceive in the image that we all now have of the American dream.
The book is good for the curious, for those who love stories that open up possibilities that today seem distant but that are absolutely possible, almost probable. It could shock and leave a feeling of heaviness regarding the political (and not only) future of the world, totally different - for the worse - from how we know it today. I recommend it, even if it's not a light read.
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Mr S J Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected surprise
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 June 2026
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First of all, this is an excellent book. Definitely worth a read. It's not what I expected. I don't know what I expected really, but it wasn't this.
The book is a character driven story with a backdrop of a civil war that takes place in the US.
It was really easy to imagine the characters as if they were real people and I feel like I really got to know the main character and who she was.
It's not the most dramatic book, it's not what I would call a fast paced page turner. It's got more life to it than that.
I would 100% recommend it to anyone.
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Torontobert
5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
Reviewed in Canada on 11 July 2021
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Set about 50 years in the future, when the USA has fallen into its second civil war over fossil fuels use after climate change and rising sea levels have wrecked the coastal South, American War charts the making of a terrorist from childhood onward. The author's setting is letter-perfect, and his depiction of the transformation of a childish tomboy into a stone-cold mas murderer is truly terrifying. This is a thoughtful novel, one that is disturbing in its insights into how violence fosters more violence. Highly recommended.
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KGBeast
5.0 out of 5 stars Skillfully flipped the spit of the current discussions
Reviewed in Germany on 13 December 2017
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When you hear the voices of the climate-change-inclined people in the media, this sometimes sounds like the proclamation of certain “religious truths” - and is also similarly aggressively defended.
In the course of the 21st century, most of the northern states of the United States have committed themselves to climate protection and, among other things, prohibited the use of fossil fuels. But the oil-producing Texas and some of the surrounding southern states do not want to bow to this particular dictation of the North, and there is another secession war that, along with the slowly sinking coastal areas, significantly changes the counties of the United States. And ensures that there are many people within the United States who suddenly find themselves in reception camps when they have to flee from the sea or rising river levels.
One of these people is Sarat (actually Sara T.), with her sister Dana, her brother Jonah and her mother, had to move from her beloved home to a refugee home, where she is quickly seen as strangeness by her size and by her burschicotic appearance - and strikes a recruiter of the Southern Rebels. which begins to increasingly radicalize the young woman. Journalist Omar Al Akkad takes up many elements of America's war on terror and turns them inside in this novel, so that the Americans are suddenly in situations from which the refugees are otherwise fleeing, who are so fond of being rejected by their grnezen .
And humanitarian workers - especially from China and the now united Africa - often pursue their own goals through their aid, which do not always have to be exclusively humanitarian.
The change between narrative and fictional documents and excerpts of history on the war between states, two biological attacks and other problems break the narrative again and again - but at the same time also condense the image of a very changed world. Obviously, this novel of the author who has come around the world criticizes current circumstances. Nevertheless, this title can also be read as a dystopic warning. Definitely recommended.
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Ronald H. Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars A strangely touching novel set among the most horrible violence and destruction
Reviewed in the United States on 1 May 2017
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This book turned out to be something entirely different than what I expected from the title. Sure, it is about the second American Civil War, set beginning in 2075, but it is not a novel about battles and war strategy. As the author notes in his prologue, it is not about war but about ruin. This is because the focus is upon single family and the disasters it encounters just trying to survive. While the author includes a prologue, it does not really make sense to the reader at the start of the novel because it includes references to things you have not read yet. So still read it at the outset, but to get the full impact, quite considerable, read it after you have completed the book. Then it will really hit you.
This is one of those rare books (especially for me since I don't read much fiction) that grabs you by your lapels and continues to entrance you long after you have read it. It is strangely poignant and even moving, even though the setting is horrible brutality and destruction. The only other book that so got a grip on me that I recall is Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Signature of All Things" (that one kept me restless for months). The central character, Sarat, we follow from age six in an America almost completely remade into new designated areas: the U.S. or blues with capital in Columbus, Ohio; the Free Southern State (FSS); and the Mexican Protectorate. The story begins in 2075 and continues until 2095 set mostly in the FSS. The displaced family's travails--and there are many--are the central focus of the story--but it is always Sarat who is front and center and evolving.
The author uses several devices to keep the story on track: for example, he incorporates various official and private documents which fill out the story and provide a context for what is befalling Sarat. As she grows into new dimensions, she becomes even more fascinating as a character. This climaxes in the final section of the book (pp. 263-333) which is one of the most gripping narratives I can ever recall reading; this is where I found this strange book to be even moving as I read it. But the violence only increases geometrically to an unbelievable conclusion, even as our respect for Sarat grows. Wow!
I have purposely not included hopefully any tip-offs to the story line in detail. This novel is so skillfully constructed that revealing even one secret might cause the whole thing to come undone. The enjoyment lies in reading a book not knowing where you will come out, except with the adult Sarat. The writing is just superior. I recommend it without hesitation, though the violence level is high. But don't forget to reread the prologue when you are done--I guarantee your emotional temperature will go up many degrees.
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Muriel
4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly touching
Reviewed in France on 18 November 2025
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Through the main character, Sarah Chestnut, we position ourselves in a changing way during the reading. At first, we find her sparkling, different from her much more conventional sister, she is endearing. During the reading, we begin to feel his psychological transformation, his tougher positions and his very present spirit of revenge. We don't always understand our actions but we accept them little by little. We have a moment of reprieve when she experiences a furtive “love” story, we hope for a moment that she will soften and feel a little bit of humanity compared to her brother. But nothing helps, until the end, she will remain frozen in revenge to reach the climax of the book where she ends up destroying everything around her. The last pages nevertheless reveal to us a part of humanity in her that was buried deep inside herself, even when she spared her nephew's life and when she revealed to him the place where she left her manuscripts in which he will discover who she is so much.
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leo dumont
4.0 out of 5 stars Good story
Reviewed in Canada on 2 January 2026
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Good book
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Terri
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Craft, Bleh Pacing, Some Elements Great, Some Pointless
Reviewed in the United States on 30 November 2024
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Well-written, the craft is definitely appreciated.
I find the thought behind this novel rather evoking in its set-up of a future United states with the Northern Blues and the Free Southern State (Red), this second American civil war instigated by a national ban on fossil fuels, but the Free Southern State not complying.
The story is from the perspective of someone you will find out later, being in first-person at times, but mostly explaining the events in these journals written by Sarat Chestnut. At age 6, she is displaced from her home to a camp, where she lives for another 6 years until something devastating happens there. At the camp, she learns some tactics from an older man. This eventually leads her to be a key Southern assassin (which was rather lackluster and could have been done so much better). We then see her in a prison and the life she leads upon her release.
The pacing was a bit bleh, as some of what was focused at Sarat's different ages could have been more meaningful, rather than feeling random or pointless to the main point of her key involvement in the war.
One thing I really enjoyed were the historical documents/notes/etc. after every chapter. They were a nice world-building element that added to the political intrigue that I greatly appreciated.
This novel should NOT be compared to McCarthy's The Road, as it is one on version of the cover. These are two extremely different dynamics, The Road being more postapocalyptic, while American War is more dystopian. The Road is a superior read, FYI.
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Roberto Buonanno (Keledan)
4.0 out of 5 stars Fully understandable only by Americans
Reviewed in Italy on 28 January 2018
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The text of American War by Omar El Akkad almost always flows well and drags you into a story of war and desperation. The events can be correctly placed only if they are American or always keeping current maps and historical atlas under hand. In fact, El Akkad goes to dissect the hidden concept of the hatred that continues to exist between the territories of the South and the North of the United States.
The book is set in a future in which an attack following the end of the Second American Civil War caused millions of deaths. The characters move in a bare and miserable environment in which there is a semblance of law but in reality the strongest always wins.
The protagonist Sarat undergoes a series of traumas and violence and, unlike what happens in fairy tales, she will not redeem herself with acts of faith and forgiveness but will take revenge in the bloodiest ways.
American War is a tough, violent book that tells us that the United States is not that united. An interesting and engaging read, even if not for everyone, as far as I'm concerned, it's a bit too gory. Sure, maybe then we'll allow our kids to watch series like The Walking Dead, maybe it's the older ones who are the most impressionable.
Excellent first work for the author but in Italy the reading will be heavier because of the lack of familiarity with the American states and their disputes and bell towers. I appreciated the author's ecological will, who invents a dystopian future in which the second civil conflict stems from the decision to stop using fossil fuels, challenged and opposed by the states of the South. But I find it as uninspired as Casus Belli, considering that history has handed down to posterity that the first civil war in the USA was fought to abolish slavery.
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Neil MacLean
4.0 out of 5 stars Gut lesbar
Reviewed in Germany on 12 September 2017
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Die detaillierte Darstellung eines Lebens nach großen Umweltkatastrophen ausgerechnet in Amerika ist realistisch und spannend beschrieben, so könnte es tatsächlich kommen. Die sehr ausführliche Befassung mit den Südstaaten und deren rebellischer Haltung nimmt m.E. etwas viel Raum ein, insbesondere die fast tollwütige Vergeltungssucht der Hauptakteurin. Ein sehr lesenswertes buch.
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Carlos Enrique Mendez Probst
2.0 out of 5 stars overrated
Reviewed in Mexico on 2 June 2017
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I found that the prose and story line was not engaging, the plot just drags on to nowhere, expected more due to media hype
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Paul@Aude_France
4.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing
Reviewed in France on 4 September 2018
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This is a harrowing story about an all-too-possible American future. In the late 21st century, the climate has been totally derailed and the American continent is battered by frequent hurricanes. Florida has disappeared beneath the waters as had much of the coastline. The south, the Red states, have gone to war against the north, the blue states, for the right to continue using fossil fuels. The story of one family, the Chessnuts, in their struggle to survive the war and the temperatures is rivetting.
This book should be required reading in all North American schools. It might enligthen some on the subject of climate change and the current state of American politics.
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drjonty
4.0 out of 5 stars very good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2025
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Dystopia is when the privileged experience its absence and this is about America experiencing its own foreign policy. As such it is an adventure story as well as a satire.
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伊藤よしひろ
4.0 out of 5 stars なぜこれが、ヒューゴー・ネヴュラ・ローカス各賞の候補にもならなかったのか
Reviewed in Japan on 30 June 2020
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Kindle版
432 ページ ページ番号ソース ISBN： 0771009410
出版社: Picador; Open Market版 (2017/4/6)
ASIN: B01N36XINK のレビュー
地球温暖化による海面上昇で陸地の多くが海面下になっている。アメリカ合衆国では化石燃料の使用が禁止される法律ができ、それに反対する南部の三州（ミシシッピ・アラバマ・ジョージア）が連邦に反乱をおこす。まあ、SFとしてはよくある設定だ。
もう一つのSF的設定は、これもよくあるけれども、戦闘マシーンに改造された少年少女が、戦い、悩み、そして、たいてい勝利するか、大義のために散っていくという話。
この2つの要素を、ひじょうにリアルに描いた小説である。
主人公（誰が主人公か読んでいけばわかる）の家族は、ルイジアナ州に荒れた農村で暮らす一家。父は北部へ行くパーミッションを得て、移住したいと考えている。長男はまだ幼いが、父母の役に立ちたいと意識しはじめた年頃。双子の姉妹は、性格は正反対でも、一応仲良く暮らしている。母は貧しい中、こどもを育てている。
そういう家族に戦火はおしよせる。難民キャンプでは赤十字の援助で、China帝国やBouazizi帝国という豊かな国からの援助物資にたよっている。南部の政権のほかに、さまざまなゲリラが勝手に戦い、少年たちを兵士としてリクルートする。つまり、戦場になったアフガニスタンのような状況なのだ。
日本人が読めばSFとして楽しめるはずだが、UKのアーサー・C・クラーク賞の候補にはなったものの、USAのSF各賞には、まったくはいっていない。SFとして扱われなかったとも考えられるが、それよりも、わたしは、この小説がアメリカ人を不快にさせたのだと思う。
著者はエジプトうまれ、カタールで育った人物で、ジャーナリストとして活躍していた人物。中東やアフガニスタンで取材実績がある。そんな＊＊＊（アラブ中東人）にアメリカをオモチャにするような話を書かれてたまるか、というのが、多くの否定的な意見の奥にあるはずだ。
パオロ・バチガルピの『ねじまき少女』が日本でずいぶん評判が悪いけれど、わたしは原書で読んで、けっこう楽しんだ。ものすごい傑作とは思わないけれど、年間ベストにはいるのも当然という作品である。本作も、あれぐらいは面白いはずだ。アメリカ人が読むと、ちょっと違うんじゃないかという描写も多いのかもしれないが、異国を扱った小説は、多かれ少なかれ、書かれた方が読むと不愉快になる部分があるものだ。ふだんは、異国の話をめちゃくちゃに書きなぐっているアメリカSFへの挑戦だと思って読むと、よけいに面白い。
なお、うるさがたのMichiko Kakutani女史が推薦しているが、エンタメ的要素も多いので、硬い小説だと敬遠しないでほしい。今、新潮文庫から翻訳が出ていることを知った。翻訳でも読んでみたらいかがでしょうか。
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A Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars Spoiled by clumsy foreshadowing and unlikeable character
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2018
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I appreciate that this book helps the reader feel what is like to be a refugee but unfortunately for me this was eclipsed by the fact that the protagonist Sarat is really quite unlikeable.
I also appreciate some foreshadowing in good books but the awful thing Sarat does at the end is all but completely spelled out near the beginning of the story and this somewhat spoiled it for me.
Omar El Akkad's prose is good though and I would still be open to reading his future work.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book from a brilliant author
Reviewed in Canada on 9 May 2017
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Beautiful story, brilliant style of writing, a pleasure to read. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to all. The story is toutching and leaves us thinking. War is ugly and never justified, suffering is universal and should not be tolerated anywhere in the world.
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Holger Breme
5.0 out of 5 stars Full Circle
Reviewed in Germany on 11 October 2017
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What if not a obscure, dirt-poor country like, say, Yemen, were the scene of a bloody, devastating civil war but the United States ? Omar El Akkad shows us what could happen. Drones, Refugee camps, massacres, suicide bombers, Guerilla fighters - they are all there. It's America fighting against itself in some not so far future. Centered on Sarat Chestnut and her coming of age in these grim times the book lets the reader back in a state of numbness and choc.
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M.E. Griffith
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant. But heartbreaking.
Reviewed in the United States on 24 July 2026
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I absolutely love this book. I wasn't sure the first time I went through it. When I finish I had to put it down and just breathe. Then I went through it a second time and at that point decided I loved it. It's a hard book to read- not to understand but just because of the heaviness of it's content, but it is such an important message for our world and El Akkad is such a brilliant writer. Idk when I'll be emotionally prepared to go through this book again but it's definitely one that needs to be read over and over again.
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Biagini Roberto
3.0 out of 5 stars American War
Reviewed in Italy on 7 December 2017
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Non sono ancora riuscito a capire se il libro mi sia piaciuto o meno. Senza dubbio una scrittura al di fuori delle righe, bella penna. Ma il testo mi é sembrato un attimino criptico. Da leggere assieme ad un buon bourbon, in modo da non capire se l'ubriacatura dipenda dal libro o dal whiskey del Kentucky... lol
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Stephanie Jane (Literary Flits)
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 March 2020
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I'd like to start my review by thanking Joy at Joyous Reads whose blogged review of American War back in April 2018 encouraged me to add this novel to my TBR - and, almost two years later, I've finally read it! Why on earth did I wait so long? American War is unbelievably good!
American War is one of a select few novels which, for me at least, surpassed the five star rating I have awarded. As I closed the book after reading its final page, I actually had to take a couple of minutes to bring myself back to the present day because I had been so deeply immersed in Sarat's world that it felt more real to me than my own! El Akkad has brilliantly meshed together the realities of refugees' smashed lives in every war ever with a chilling portrait of how such desperation can be manipulated by callous men to create radicalised suicidal human weapons. What makes American War so shocking is that, by imagining America ripped apart by a second civil war, El Akkad's refugees are both Americans themselves and the result of American warfare techniques. This isn't the USA invading foreign nations in South or Central America, or across the Middle East, but the narrative and actions have such an authentic ring to them because I have already seen these ideas in novels such as Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif and The President's Gardens by Muhsin Al-Ramli.
The concept of The South rising again is wonderfully evocative. The American War storyline is told from a point even further into the future than the events we follow so it reads as rich historical fiction even it is actually science fiction. We glimpse as-yet impossible technologies, but the majority of scenes are set on poverty-stricken Southern lands, all-but destroyed by years of war, or within the crowded tent city that is Patience Refugee Camp, so people are struggling to survive with very little, their only highlights being the monthly Chinese aid shipment. I got a sense of a society which had reached affluent success, but which had now lost everything it had achieved - perhaps similar to present-day Syria?
El Akkad has already garnered comparisons with authors such as Cormac McCarthy and, on the strength of his vivid depictions of these grim settings, I would agree that his writing is easily as powerful. I was absolutely steamrollered by American War and will, I think, be enthusiastically recommending this novel to everyone I can find! Superb!
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LauLalla
4.0 out of 5 stars It has caused me a bit of anxiety
Reviewed in Italy on 7 January 2018
Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
On the cover of the novel American War by Omar El Akkad, a sentence is written
that immediately makes us understand what the book is about, on the other hand, even the title immediately gives us the idea.
Omar El Akkad's debut shows us a future of an
increasingly realistic imagined landscape, the vivid, disturbing shot of what could happen
if the States used their policies on themselves.
A new civil war, in which the north and the south of America are no longer fighting each other for old
reasons, but for those related to the economy and ecology.
Oil that has now become outlawed, so measures must be taken to
save the States and the world from catastrophe.
Catastrophic scenarios are told, vicissitudes, which sincerely
worried me, that I would never like them to access, it seems to me rather a somewhat provocative novel, perhaps to make us reflect.
As far as the editorial aspect is concerned, it is well done, good binding, good grammar pages
, for those who love this type of novel it is a good book.
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Translated from Italian by Amazon
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