Synopsis
Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction
Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Book of the Year
Omar El Akkad’s powerful debut novel imagines a dystopian future: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague and one family caught deep in the middle. For fans of Station Eleven.
'American War creates as haunting a post-apocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road' – New York Times
2074. America’s future is Civil War. Sarat’s reality is survival. They took her father, they took her home, they told her lies . . .
She didn’t start this war, but she’ll end it.
In American War, we’re asked to consider what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons against itself.
Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.
Details
Reviews
“This is extremely good . . . Basically was hoping for my train to be delayed”Sarah Perry
“America’s tortured present lends unsettling believability to American War, the dystopian debut from journalist Omar El Akkad with its late 21st-century picture of a second civil war, fought over fossil fuel in a US devastated by environmental disaster. Brilliantly imagined, it’s both a timely tale and a salutary warning.”Mariella Frostrup, Guardian ‘Best Books of 2017’
“American War is an extraordinary novel. 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.”Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
“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.”Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
