American War

A novel

By: Omar El Akkad

Narrated by: Dion Graham

“Powerful . . . As haunting a postapocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy [created] in The Road, and as devastating a look as the fallout that national events have on an American family as Philip Roth did in The Plot Against America. . . . Omar El Akkad’s debut novel, American War, is an unlikely mash-up of unsparing war reporting and plot elements familiar to readers of the recent young-adult dystopian series The Hunger Games and Divergent.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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.

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, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. 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 not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of 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.

It's no picnic - but nourishing all the same.

It's hard to quantify all the reasons you should read this book. While it's certainly not an uplifting tale as the title should suggest, it depicts war in a way most Americans don't grasp, or like to think about. I've read a lot of war journals, and non fiction, and I think this rings true to a lot of what I've seen and read. War is a hate and carelessness made manifest, and we should read more from accounts of the losing side than the winning side. I think Akkad poignantly drives that point home with an inspired piece of fiction. I'd also say it's not a perfectly crafted tale - but it definitely works. Some reviewer call it slow. I'd say it's realistic? It's a book about the victims of war, and the tone and pace reveal a sense of the expansive claustrophobia that long periods of internment and lack of self determination would entail. Impressive debut novel.

A Great American Story!

I throughly enjoyed this novel. The best way I can describe this book is as follows:
- A tragic story similar to the girl in the movie Sarafina.
- A story of family history similar to that of the novel The Passage
- The story telling (news accounts and excerpts from history) similar to that of the book World War Z
- A revised history / future based upon the Civil War, similar to the book the Underground Airlines
Also, the narration was excellent. Dion Graham "nailed" the southern accents perfectly. Overall, I felt like I really got to know the characters in the novel, especially Sarat. I would love to see this novel turned into a movie. Omar El Akkad, you did good. very good.

Here's one for all you confederates

Let's see if I have this right: With Florida under water and an inland sea already well advanced up the Mississippi, the south secedes because they want to maintain their God-given right to burn fossil fuel? Oh well, NASCAR or die! In spite of this weird premise it's a good yarn, if you can abide its hero, the insufferable Serat Chestnut. Plenty of violence. The "blues" are all cruel, deceitful monsters, the southerners are all heroic dead-enders, (depending on how you feel about suicide bombers), and the plucky Serat remains true to the end, which she effects by...OK, no spoilers. I stuck it out because I thought Akkad would get to the total futility of war. Well, sort of, but if you have a Confederate battle flag planted in the bed of your pick-up, this is your book.

New Twist in Crowded Genre

This book falls into something more literary and experimental. A near-future, war-torn and with an inhospitable environment, creates a realistic setting for our country that is more and more fragmented and polarized. Red and blue take on heavier meanings when war breaks out.

But, this is a character(s) story. This is a family story. I enjoyed it and will listen again.

Scary to think this could all happen

In the midst of our current political climate, this story hit a bit too close to home at times. It certainly causes the American reader to
Have an inside glimpse of what our lives would be like if war erupted on our soil causing innocent women and children to fend for themselves.