American War: A novel (Random House Large Print)

This book has me more depressed than the political developments of the last year. The book is about us, our country, our tribes, and our bleak prospects for the future. The Us and Them thinking that has propelled our foreign relations ever since 9/11 turns out to have similar consequences when war breaks out between the Red South and the Blue North. With half of the South disappearing in to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, poverty is endemic and huge groups of poor refugees make their way northward. Although some reviewers say the Second Civil War isn't about slavery versus abolition but fossil fuels against clean energy, I believe the author sees it as a logical and historical consequence of the First. Yes, there is indignation that the South should not be forced to give up its fossil fuel and aging vehicles at a time when it is largely impoverished, but it leads to the same State's rights fervor which lead to the original Great Rebellion and Secession. These are, after all, descendants of the same Southerners for whom the war was never lost and the cause never abandoned. This time, however, the Federal Government, relocated to Columbus because of the loss of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard, it prepared to deal with Rebels in the same manner in which it dealt with Islamic Terrorism. Only this time the war is here and the enemy are ourselves. In the end, it's not politics that matter, it is tribalism, family, anger, hate, fear, and revenge with guide the survivors destinies. Akkad has been covering a lot of world-wide events--Afghanistan, Gitmo, Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter--and his observations coalesce into a bleak vision of what might be in store if we cannot find some way to live with each other.

Ah, where to begin... Extreme division, terrorism, refugees, injustice, bombings, WAR - all on US soil. Fast forward about 60 years into the future and you'll see a very different United States of America. Climate change has, among other things, completely washed away cities and states. A ban on fossil fuels has turned the country into a warzone. In a nutshell, the North is of the mind that everyone must rely on solar power and other alternatives for power, but the South will not give up using fuel.

Rebels from the South resort to blowing themselves up to get at high ranking officials in the North. The North wages air strikes and battles on foot in the South, which displaces thousands. Southerners resort to living in refugee camps because they have nowhere else to go.

This story is of Sarat, not a "true" Southerner being from Louisiana, and her life throughout the war. We begin with her family's attempt to move to the safety of the North being shattered. Instead the family finds themselves with no other choice than to seek shelter in a refugee camp. From there, things for Sarat and her family only get worse.

I read American War as suggested through my book club. It didn't disappoint and is a great read for in-depth discussion. The idea of a modern day Civil War combined with severe climate change is terrifying and believable, and within that you see the effects of war through the eyes of its ultimate victims.

I snagged this book on a whim to support an independent bookstore during a vacation and absolutely devoured it on the flight home. I'd been a bit burned out on post-apocalyptic fiction lately, but this book was not your typical environmental or man-made apocalypse. Instead, it was an apocalypse created by people being dumb; or perhaps more charitably, by people being human.

Sarat isn't necessarily a sympathetic character, but that made her all the more intriguing for me. El Akkad's representation of Southern politics is a direct commentary on current Republican "values," but Sarat unflinchingly fights for them. This is where it should be noted that Sarat is a queer woman of color, which means there's a lot to unpack.

The narrative flowed smoothly, giving enough details about the world to give the reader just enough information while leaving them wanting more. I might have preferred to read the events of this story from Sarat's direct perspective instead of from the distance of another character, but that did not prevent it from being engrossing.

Though it's not a genre novel, I highly recommend it to all readers as a fantastic warning against what happens to those who cling too tightly to the past and those who careen to quickly into the future.

The story has an interesting and troubling premise that is clearly meant to tap into our growing polarization and take it to a horrific extreme. It's not entirely believable that the country would go to war over fossil fuels (hardly as polarizing an issue today as slavery was in the 19th century), but I get where the author is coming from with a different part of the country having different values. But after offering an interesting premise, the book suffers in the execution. A lot of the dialogue is wooden or cliche and the relationships among the core characters are never developed all that well. Most problematically, the pacing leaves a lot to be desired. There are stretches where the novel plods along and only the distant promise of future events or character development gets you through the pages. The predictable plot line of torture and horrific loss breeding an unquenchable desire for revenge through senseless terrorism culminates in a final act of violence that was more unbelievably absurd than hauntingly memorable.

Good dystopian novels say something about current societal trends, and this one does. But it was a struggle to finish. Don't expect 1984 or The Road and you might enjoy it.

American War is a very well written book that submerges the reader is a desolate time where the United States are still torn apart between the "red" parts of the country and the "blue." In this dire future, where climate change has already caused dramatic sea rise and violent weather patterns, the country has permanently fractured due to a dispute over the banning of fossil fuels. The blue states are pro the environmental ban and the red states are determined to fight to protect their "rights" and "heritage." The parallels to history are evident but the Civil War redux is even more cataclysmic with the destruction and death brought by modern, including biological, warfare. American War focuses predominately on a family that is forced to leave their home in Louisiana and settle in a refugee camp where the children are recruited to the violent cause. This through the looking glass tale positions the American war as it would any civil conflict in a battle torn country, with outside interference in the form of aid convoys and mercenaries. The novel gives you a lot of really depressing things to contemplate as we get the feeling that the South which only reveres its "history" will never give up the fight to destroy the future of us all.

I am not a writer but I always had this idea in my head that if I wrote a book it would be about a second US civil war. Luckily I did not write the book but Omar El Akkad did. I really loved this book and there is not another way to put it.

Obviously, the book is about the second civil war in the US that was precipitated, not by slavery, but by the use of fossil fuels. The war has fractured the country and climate change has altered some of the geographies in the US. The story centers mostly around its main character Sarat Chestnut. Chestnut is one of the most heartbreaking characters I have read in a while. I am serious man, that character made an impression on me. I will let you read it for yourself to see if you feel the same. I don’t think it would be revelatory to say Sarat suffers and Akkad made me feel it. The story telling is pretty straight forward and easy to follow, but I was wholly engaged in the story so it didn’t feel slow to me. The only thing that I found curious is the lack of racism and discussion of racism amongst the narrative. It is set in the future and the war wasn’t started based on anything to do with race, which I am cool with and understand. Sarat is from Louisiana and of mixed decent and described as having brown skin. She faces so many obstacles and tribulations in this book but race never seems to be a factor. It was just something that made me curious more than something that bothered me because the story itself covers such introspection about American society that maybe the author didn’t want to bog it down more with the racial dynamic. It is only 60-80 years into the future through most of the book which, to me, makes it all the scarier. Akkad has juxtaposed America’s self-destruction through the use of oil and fossil fuels with the havoc and destruction of war in the middle east from the 80’s through the Bush years. I guess as a person that developed in those years I find it an interesting concept. Another thing about this book is how incredibly dark it is. I can go ahead and tell you that if you’re looking for a light take on war this book is not for you. This is definitely a dystopian tale but the raw emotion mixed with the continued violence, devastation, and trauma border on the verge of literary horror. War being the monster.

I could go on about the book. I probably have gone on about it too much already. I feel like it is an important and insightful novel. It is impressive that this is Akkad’s first book. I was initially disappointed knowing he didn’t have anything else I could check out but now I am excited to see what the author comes out with next.

This is a gripping, well-written novel that explores the terrible impact that war has on the poor and non-combatants. There is a lot to like here. El Akkad draws compelling characters. Sarat, the protagonist, is a tough character to like, particularly as the ravages of war takes their toll on her and her family. She starts as a taciturn, socially isolated child who is increasingly hardened by the sufferings of herself and her family. Her rage eventually leads her to commit terrible acts that test the reader's empathy. It is to El Akkad's credit that Sarat doesn't lost all sympathy.

Her mother, Martina, is also beautifully drawn. She is a woman whose family is mired in poverty, and who seeks a better life for them. The war forces her into difficult choices that have significant consequences for her family, but she remains undefeated (if grim).

The details of Sarat's world are well-drawn and the spaces she inhabits feel very real, as do the various people Sarat encounters.

So why does this only rate 3 stars? Because the framework for Sarat's story isn't as plausible as it could be, and the defects rob the story of a certain punch. The many reviews that describe this book as being the logical conclusion of today's partisan divides, but I don't see it. The genesis for El Akkad's world is a decision by the north to ban fossil fuels, leading to a result in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia (the "MAG") as well as eastern Texas. But Louisiana, which has a significant oil industry, does not rebel. In this novel, race doesn't appear to be an issue for the inhabitants of the MAG; Sarat is half-Hispanic, half-black, but her race is never an issue. And religious tension is also missing. There is one brief scene suggesting that religious bigotry survives, but it's not a motivating force. In light of today's racial tensions, as well as nationalist and xenophobic populist strains, it's hard to see El Akkad's late 21st century as the most likely outgrowth of today's divides.

One other major flaw for me was the depiction of Sarat's relationship with Albert Gaines, who radicalizes her. This radicalization is the genesis of Sarat's actions, but it feels too quick. I understand why Sarat is amenable to Gaines' manipulation--he pays attention to her and treats her seriously--but she eagerly embraces his romanticization of the southerner's cause, which doesn't really track with her character. It's not that I doubt that it would have taken effect, eventually, just the speed with which it happened. It felt unconvincing, which does weaken both Sarat's development as a character and the narrative arc.

Still, this is a compelling book, one that I didn't want to put down and which has stayed with me.

American War, by Omar El Akkad, tells the story of yet another civil war in the United States in the late 21st century that has fractured it once again into North versus South. The premise of this imagined future clash is not race and slavery, but science and the environment. We learn that as climate change ravaged the Earth, the Northern states abandoned fossil fuels, while the South maintained their excavation and use of them. This causes the North to decide to wage war, utilizing devastating biological weapons attacks that have reduced the United States to a weakened status in the world.

The novel is focused on the members of one ill-fated family in Louisiana, starting in 2075, when the country is enjoying a fragile, if often violated, peace. Sarat Chestnut lives with her parents and siblings in a corrugated steel container salvaged from the shipyard, where supplies periodically arrive from the new superpowers in Asia and North Africa. Hearing rumors of good jobs, her father has plans to move the family North for a better life. With one ill-placed suicide bomber, those dreams are slaughtered and Sarat and her siblings are forced to leave their small steel world to become refugees.

From the refuse of war and scraps of charity, Sarat and her fellow survivors create a faux simile of normal life, but their efforts are constantly interrupted by “warbirds” and militia raids. The children of war and their widowed mothers are trapped between warring factions, exploited for news propaganda, used as human shields or recruited to wear “farmers suits” and become suicide bombers.

American War is an illustration of how resentment ferments in boredom and produces an acid that could poison any peace. But this story is always Sarat’s. This is the painful journey that reveals how a curious girl evolves into a pitiless fighter. This transformation is all the more horrifying because you sympathize with her so deeply and feel so viscerally at the outrages she endures. Sarat’s acts of retribution, lead you through the murky moral realm of a place plowed by murder and seeded by torture. In places, the book’s description was so real, so raw, that I had to step away and remind myself that the world outside was not the one I was reading about.
With all of the heated political issues being raised today, this book may not be for everyone. I personally found that the narration and story were highly plausible as to where we could be headed if caution, as well as history, is not heeded. El Akkad, in my opinion, has produced a literary gem. I gave this book 5/5 stars.

** spoiler alert ** Interesting read for the Fourth of July I know ... but it's the most "American" thing I could find on my TBR list that I had on hand.

I love Sarat and young Benjamin's relationship. I love Sarat's tragic story and the obvious strength she pulls from her losses and life. I wanted more of Sarat and Marcus.

As plausible as the scenario is to me (I honestly can see this being a root cause for a second US Civil War) ... it's just not my genre of literature and I couldn't love it as much as I wanted to.

The lack of stars is more my personal preference and less a reflection on the writing. I do love the writing, the emotion, the characters that you feel have become a part of your family ... overall a great read.

"you must understand that in this part of the world, right and wrong ain't about who wins, or who kills who. In this part of the world, right and wrong ain't even about right and wrong. It's about what you do for your own."

I kind of wanted her and Marcus to end up together in Alaska raising Benjamin tho ...

Omar El Akkad's American War: A novel is so tremendously successful because the author is able to transplant events and circumstances that Americans think of as happening over "there" to here. This is the chilling aspect of the novel.

What we see now, the shrinking of American economic and military power, our retreat into tribalism/regionalism, the massive gaps in income and ethnicity that are widening in our society, and environmental degradation become, in American War our social and political reality. This unmasking of American exceptionalism makes for sober and scary reading.

The evolution of a terrorist, with a twist: the setting is the late 21st century American South during a second Civil War being fought over a federal mandate barring the use of fossil fuels. The author was born in Egypt, raised in Qatar, and moved to Canada at age 16. As a reporter he covered the war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantanamo, and the Arab Spring. These interests inform the insights expressed throughout the story.

With massive damage from climate change, including coastlines and several states under water, the U.S. is in shambles. Louisiana and Florida are mostly inundated. Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia have seceded, with other states in the area caught in the middle. South Carolina is literally walled off to the world after the feds experimented with bio-warfare there and turned the population into slow-moving creatures who infect anyone who comes near them. The southwest is part of a Mexican protectorate, and the two world super powers, China and an empire comprised of the Middle East and Northern Africa, help the South in order to weaken the federal effort and the U.S. as a whole.

Sarat Chestnut, displaced with her family as a young girl from the remnants of the Louisiana coast and raised in a refugee camp, has a bleak childhood. She is singled out by a man from outside the camp to be groomed as a terrorist, feeding on her anger and hate for the North. As happened in the first Civil War, the South is impoverished and ruined by the conflict, but this time the war has gone on much longer, giving birth to a whole generation of young adults for whom there has never been anything but fear and hate of the enemy. Rival militias fight within the South, and Northern incursions thin these amateur ranks further and further. By the time Sarat is in her late teens she is ready to perform a task that will have massive consequences for herself, her family, and any talk of peace.

The story, told 40 years after Sarat's death, is given by a man who knew her when he was a boy and who lives in New Anchorage, a city which frequently moves inland as the Earth continues to warm. His portrayal of her is unemotional and interspersed with excerpts of news stories and historical analyses of the war. Only near the end do we realize why he knows so much of what she was thinking and the truth of what finally brought the entire country to its knees, foretold in the beginning of the book and realized in his narration in a tense and mesmerizing second half.

This is not a comfortable book to read, and along the way I had several criticisms to make. For one thing, I found it hard to imagine a civil war over the use of fossil fuels, especially while the land is actually disappearing from under the feet of the combatants. It seemed too convenient a fiction on which to hang the tale. But I kept going back to read a few more pages and finally got so caught up I couldn't stop reading till I'd finished, and I realized that the locale and reason for the war are less important here than the psychological aspects. The author has stated that he thinks readers should not sympathize with Sarat but that, hopefully, they will be able to understand why she acted as she did, and I think he succeeded in this. I've often thought that the way to peace in any conflict can be aided immeasurably by empathy with the "why" of the enemy, and I continue to believe it, but this story gives some perspective into how so very difficult that can be when a whole generation is trapped in the cycle of hate and distrust.

Very highly recommended.

What I Liked

How imaginative and relevant the premise is. It’s not a plot spoiler to tell you that American War is set in a dystopian future in which America is once again experiencing a civil war due to disputes over the use of oil in Southern States. Against the backdrop of the consequences of global warming which have been on everyone’s mind recently – especially with America pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord – El Akkad builds a society in which two warring ideologies are pitted against each other. The narrative reflects a whole host of modern issues which see people on either side unwilling to compromise or consider views that differ from their own. This divide is further complicated in the novel and in real life by elements of greed, corruption and power-mongering that bring any kind of progress or resolution to a standstill. Those who suffer the most in El Akkad’s world and ours are average human beings, trying to keep shelter over their heads and food on their tables. This is what makes this novel so universal and so highly topical, whether you decide it most closely mirrors the conflict in Palestine, the refugee crisis in Syria or the divisions in modern politics in America and elsewhere today.

That the protagonist is a strong and atypical female character. The protagonist of the novel is a child name Sarat, and the novel follows her entire life into adulthood. The author definitely hints at the fact that Sarat’s family is likely African American, so I really appreciated having the diversity of a female and non-white main character. Sarat is portrayed as the diametrical opposite of her non-identical twin sister Dana. While Dana is beautiful in a socially accepted way and soft, Sarat is more rugged but resourceful and skilled. She’s not the usual hero but as an original type of heroine, she’s much more relatable and interesting. Her power lies in her fierce instinct of protection toward the people she loves and in her resilience in the face of unimaginable circumstances. Both as a teenager and as a woman, Sarat is a commanding character through whom the reader will experience this unforgiving new world, rooting for her to find moments of stability and peace among violence and cruelty.

The world building. El Akkad meticulously constructs a new reality which is both alien and familiar. Among leftover elements of the past like cartoon character backpacks and old beauty magazines come new items like the congealed apricot gel packs on which refugees from the Southern States rely on for sustenance and defensive drones that have gone rogue and now bombard innocents at random. El Akkad masterfully creates an entire world, both at the larger level (with restructured governments and borders), and in the details (with its mix of timeworn and original elements). It’s quite a feat and one that the reader will feel themselves immersed in immediately. The newly imagined world of the novel has the scope of some of the most comprehensive and disturbing dystopias in fiction today, like the world of The Handmaid’s Tale. That is high praise indeed, but trust me, it’s deserved.

What I Didn’t Like

I wanted more! I think this novel would lend itself extremely well to being adapted into a TV series similarly to The Handmaid’s Tale. I felt like this was a first pass at a story and a world which have so much to offer. There were many other characters in the landscape which El Akkad could not follow further but which would have made for extremely compelling secondary storylines. Much like The Handmaid’s Tale, the potential of expanding on the narrative of American War is nearly limitless, and since its subject matter is also highly topical, I would be surprised if the TV or movie rights haven’t already been snapped up by a producer.

Final Verdict

American War immerses the reader in a compelling and frightening dystopian future, in which a new civil conflict threatens to lead everyone in its path into destruction, including our daring heroine Sarat.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn’t a light read that’s for sure. Yet I liked following Sarat through her life and how she became to be.

Sarat’s childhood is pretty much ripped apart and continues its’ descent as the book goes on. She’s pretty much robbed of it - although she’s not like other children. She’s a tomboy, taller than most kids and sticks out like a sore thumb. She’s also very inquisitive and curious. Now if you sum those characteristics and consider the living conditions she’s in, and the setting, this is ripe for anyone to take advantage of these people and manipulation is key here.

You have to admit, you had to take a liking to Albert Gaines. He was proper, soft spoken, intelligent, was able to spin history as tales and stories for you to imagine. You knew what was underneath that exterior. You knew he had another agenda in his mind (it was evident that Sarat knew about this too, as did other camp inhabitants) but it didn’t matter. Living in squalor and having nowhere to go, someone with that much charisma can certainly be attractive, and Sarat was no exception. She felt special and wanted. She was perfectly manipulated into becoming an instrumental machine to their cause. You can’t blame Sarat for becoming what she ultimately came to be later in the book.

The setting and plot was good. It’s pretty much civil war in the USA and climate change has wrecked havoc in some parts of the East. You also have alternate history elements in the book where you have the Bouazizi empire who have expanded and wield influence in the world, and of course you have the North and the South fighting against each other again.

What really compliments the setting are the characters. There’s not many to choose from, since Sarat is really central to the story. Her family: Martina, Dana, and Simon are secondary characters. (Simon plays a larger part later in the latter half of the book). However, they’re very well rounded and you’re so attached to Sarat because she’s human. I loved Sarat for her strength and resilience. She displayed this even when she was a young child. That carried her throughout the novel and she maintained the strength up until the end. I really felt for her as she suffered immensely and yet you would completely understand her situation if it had happened to you. You would be out for revenge every chance you get. However it also goes to show how far her manipulation went and the consequences.

It’s definitely not a light read but one to read slowly and to be carefully thought through. Definitely recommended.

The decline of America divided into factions fighting against one another. It's happened once before, centuries ago, and the realities and aftermath of a second civil war in America is depicted within the haunting pages of Omar El Akkad's American War. 

The Second American Civil War is a decades long fight between the northerners and southerners, displacing many families into various camps. Following the war through the experiences of Sarat Chestnut, starting when she's six years old into her thirties, when the war is finally reaching its end, the brutal realities of a country fighting itself come to light. As Sarat's family slowly loses members, first her father, then her mother, her twin sister, and finally her brother, Sarat's reasons to fight in the war shift until she's offered an opportunity to change everything, once and for all.

Set in a near-future where part of the East Coast has been consumed by a rising sea level and fighting and mistrust runs rampant through the people of America, the reality presented in these pages was eerily plausible in light of America's history and its current political climate/position in the world. Sarat is a strong and well-developed character, who serves the role of central figure well as her nephew recalls her story after discovering the diaries she left for him. The narrative of this future America is well thought out with a developed world to call upon, but there were portions of the story that moved slowly where attention could wane; however, the novel provokes further thought and introspection, with a power to stick with you long after you finish reading its pages.

I gave this book 5 stars even though I didn't like the ending. American War is the best book I've read in a long time. It's hard to believe that this is Omar El Akkad's first book. Prior to this, he was a journalist. It is not a feel good book but it's one of the best of the dystopian novels.
Some people have said this book is about climate change and the way things are in the United States right now. It takes place after what is called the Second Civil War. I look at the book as an indictment of war and how after a while nobody knows why they started fighting in the first place.
The family at the center of American War is the Chestnuts, Benjamin, Martina, Simon Dana and Sara but Sara takes the name Sarat after a kindergarten teacher says her middle initial as part of her first name. Sarat is the heroine of this book if it has such a thing. Maybe we should just call her the main character. The Chestnuts live a fairly normal life if there is such a thing after what the United States has been through. Benjamin came to this country as a young child from Mexico at a time when people were still coming here. Martina was born here. They and their 3 children live in a kind of limbo in what is left of Louisiana. Most of what used to be Louisiana is now under water. They want to move North where there is a better climate and maybe a better future but to do that Benjamin needs a permit. He leaves with a friend to get that and never comes home. Martina must now decide where to go with her 3 children. They end up at a refugee camp called Patience. The United States is now getting foreign aid and has refugee camps. We have done to ourselves that which was always taking place in some far away country.
The camp is right at the edge of Blue country and the border is guarded to make sure no one can get through. Because Louisiana is considered a neutral state, they shouldn't even be there. The camp is made up of a bunch of tents divided up by which state they came from. The Chestnuts end up being placed in the Mississippi section.
At the camp Sarat is singled out by a man named Gaines. He makes her feel special and pulls something out of her so that even though she's really only a child in her teens, brings out the urge to kill. He turns her into a weapon and she finds out much later that this is his modus operandi, similar to what is done by Boko Haram and Isis. After a massacre at the camp, she is locked and loaded.
Sarat's mind is warped by all she has gone through. Killing becomes her sole purpose in life. Ultimately she is captured, imprisoned and tortured, all of which fuels her insanity. Just imagine what is happening to the minds of all the children now in refugee camps.
American War is told from a historical perspective of Sarat's nephew, Benjamin, the son of her brother Simon who was badly damaged mentally in the Camp Patience massacre. By the time Sarat is released from prison the woman who was his nurse has become Simon's wife and mother of Benjamin. Benjamin becomes the only person Sarat cares about In exchange for the relocation and life of her nephew she agrees to an ultimate act of destruction. The history Benjamin shares is from the diaries of his long dead aunt and also from things she told him. Despite all she has done he still loves her.
I received the book from the First Look Book Club and its publishers, Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. I have posted this review on Goodreads and the store

Not even close to McCarthy's The Road.... the NY Times review claimed it was as good as that book, but don't be fooled. The Road is a classic of monumental proportions, American War is merely ok. First of all, the author is a very good writer. I'm a slow reader and I flew through this book simply because of the author's prose. Second, it's clear that he was using this future American civil war as a stand-in to describe the plight, experiences, mind set, etc of people in the Middle East today who live in refugee camps and hold grudges across generations and are victims of events and forces that are beyond their control. But I didn't have a problem with that. His background as an Arab and a journalist in the Mid East makes him well-qualified to write from that perspective, and he does a very good job with it (again, he is a talented writer). The main problem I had with this book, and one I couldn't quite overlook, was the premise that the Second Civil War in the book took place because the southern states refuse to give up using fossil fuel while the rest of the country has adopted solar and wind power. That's just plain stupid. Can anyone honestly say that they believe that could be a reason for the US breaking apart and warring with itself? The author should have simply just left the reason for the war vague, without an explicit explanation. This would have given more weight to the underlying themes of the book (i.e. wars are fought for the benefit of the elite and the regular folk get used as pawns and are the ones who have to pay the biggest price, and then hold grudges, therefore making solutions, reconciliation, and healing almost impossible)

What impressed was the author’s telegraphing of history and current events into the future. The conflicts, factions, ideologies, weapons, tactics, politics, and more, are recognizable. A small example is the Red Cross being replaced with the Red Crescent. This was all very inventive and reflected on El Akkad’s profession as a journalist.

The plot, characters and atmosphere epitomizes dystopian. Anger beats hope, politics trumps logic. Any bright spot, such as, family is also trodden upon. So do not look for pat redemption and resolution. It is bleak. While there have been comparisons to The Road, I would downplay the connection. American War is not smart as it tries extremely hard to be intelligent. It attempts to accomplish too much and meanders from outrage to outrage. To be frank, I considered not finishing the book on several occasions. At conclusion, I found it too ambitious and long.

I was excited when I first heard about this novel because as a writer and a political junkie, it's a subject I've thought about a lot myself. It really seems sometimes like we are two separate, very different nations trying to share one continent and I'm not entirely sure those two nations want the same things anymore.

I will admit I was a little disappointed at first because I thought the story would take place on a larger scale. But I soon began to realize how the author's focus on one particular family made the story much more intense and captivating. This is a work of great literature, in my opinion.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for our country and our descendants. The world pictured here definitely makes me appreciate what we have now all that much more.

I am not even sure where to begin with this book; it's acutely tragic and distressing and yet hopeful from the respect that the events in the book can be circumvented. The book takes place in the not too distant future during the Second American Civil War, with states denoted as Blue or Red (sound familiar?!) One of the opening lines puts the book into perspective perfectly, "this isn't a story about war. It's about ruin." In my opinion, the author focuses less on the political nature ("causes of war") and spends most of the book focusing on the human side/experience. To me, both the Blues and Reds in the novel are painted as wrong; there is no "right" side in this war. In similar respect, the characters are not shadowed as good/bad or right/wrong but rather humans who have endured unspeakable horrors and their human emotions and thoughts manifest, get manipulated, and become convoluted based on experiences. It's complex and raw which lended itself for me to feel the weight and potential of the story. Albeit a work of fiction, there is crucial insight to glean from this novel and it would certainly make for a powerful book club discussion.

It seems the author had the idea that maybe the Islamic radicalization process would be relatable if transplanted into the context of the US north/south cultural division. In order to do that, he had to re-invent the US civil war, which would have to take place in the future, which would require the portrayal of a lot of things that don't really contribute to the narrative. Like... okay, most of the coast is underwater and a lot of the land is non-arable, but this is just setting that contributes little to nothing to the story. It seems there was so much effort involved in propping up the conceit that there was nothing left for exposition, plot, character, sociocultural context. The dialogue and descriptive language are an awkward, stilted hunt through a thesaurus. Had to skim most of it.

I am not even sure where to begin with this book; it's acutely tragic and distressing and yet hopeful from the respect that the events in the book can be circumvented. The book takes place in the not too distant future during the Second American Civil War, with states denoted as Blue or Red (sound familiar?!) One of the opening lines puts the book into perspective perfectly, "this isn't a story about war. It's about ruin." In my opinion, the author focuses less on the political nature ("causes of war") and spends most of the book focusing on the human side/experience. To me, both the Blues and Reds in the novel are painted as wrong; there is no "right" side in this war. In similar respect, the characters are not shadowed as good/bad or right/wrong but rather humans who have endured unspeakable horrors and their human emotions and thoughts manifest, get manipulated, and become convoluted based on experiences. It's complex and raw which lended itself for me to feel the weight and potential of the story. Albeit a work of fiction, there is crucial insight to glean from this novel and it would certainly make for a powerful book club discussion.

It seems the author had the idea that maybe the Islamic radicalization process would be relatable if transplanted into the context of the US north/south cultural division. In order to do that, he had to re-invent the US civil war, which would have to take place in the future, which would require the portrayal of a lot of things that don't really contribute to the narrative. Like... okay, most of the coast is underwater and a lot of the land is non-arable, but this is just setting that contributes little to nothing to the story. It seems there was so much effort involved in propping up the conceit that there was nothing left for exposition, plot, character, sociocultural context. The dialogue and descriptive language are an awkward, stilted hunt through a thesaurus. Had to skim most of it.

American war is set around the years following 2075. America is a shell of what it once was and is no longer a powerful nation. Climate change has taken its toll- water levels have risen leaving a good portion of coastal states under water, Alaska hasn't seen snow in years, and the government realizes it has to change its ways before consequences become worse. The Second American Civil War breaks out when a cluster of Southern states refuse to abide new laws that forbid use of fossil fuels. Deeply set in their ways and too stubborn to see the damage climate change has already caused, chaos ensues in the south as the rebellion tries to make its stand against the government.
We follow our protagnist Sarat, a six year olf girl,as she grows up in neutral state but somehow finds herself in the heart of the southern rebellion.

The character development in this book is what made the whole story complete for me. I was able to sit in the comfort of my home as I read about an innocent girl being ruined by war and becoming a very questionable adult. Throughout the book i couldn't decide on whether i liked Sarat or despised her. The author was brilliant in creating such an interesting character, because even if i hated her, i could fully understand and empathize on why she was the way she was and the motive behind her actions.
I also agree with other reviewers in that the premise for this story was very plausible. The state America is in now, i can defintely see a civil war starting due to the division between North and South, Blues and reds, liberal and conservatives or however else you'd like to word it. Omar El Akkad created a very tangible reality, ask bleak as it may seem. He seems to have a great understanding of this division and the logic behind each side.

American war was a very bittersweet read for me. I loved this book but cannot give it 5 stars due to the diffculty for me to get into it. I had to set aside some time and force myself to read the bulk of the book just to get enough momentum to finish it. I was very unsure of where the novel was headed and wasn't interested enough to read with ease, but once i got past the hurdel i defintely belive it was well worth it. The ending was fully satisfying.

The first thing that struck me while reading the prologue was “I’m going to love this book”. The writing is beautiful and the premise is thought-provoking. The novel starts out with an unnamed first person narrator telling the story of a doomed war and a girl named Sarat.

“This isn’t a story about a war. It’s about ruin.”

Right there, I was hooked.

Unfortunately, the next two-thirds of the novel weren't anywhere near as good. Sarat’s story was interesting enough to keep me reading but I found it tedious and unimpressive. I felt detached from her even though I completely understood why she was the way she was. Sarat’s harrowing story starts when she is 6 years old living with her parents and two siblings. She quickly learns the brutality of war.

At the end of each chapter, there is an excerpt about the war after it ended. Sometimes it was an interview, but it was mostly articles about events that occurred and their outcome. These articles left a great sense of foreboding. I really enjoyed the way the author incorporated this into the novel.

Another saving grace was the last third of the book when the narratives changed. I was debating on giving this a lower rating but the ending was excellent.

It seems to me the author is justifiably trying to tell Americans what horrors their policies and wars have unleashed in the Middle East - to tell them that what they have done there is exactly what others would do to them if given the chance for retribution. It's all there: the drones, a domestic Guantanamo, an American Shabra/Shatila massacre, the warring militias America unleashed in Iraq, retaliatory terrorist bombings by pre-programmed "Martyrs", trivial compensations, Great Power international politics disguised as freedom fighting, etc, etc, etc. He further tells Americans that they are capable just as much as the peoples they have belittled of descending into remorseless tribal warfare, especially if it is abetted by foreign assistance.
Is the author getting even for all this thru the atrocities committed by the protagonist, Sarat? Or is he simply trying to say that the rest of the world has some basis for considering such vengeance, if only because of emotions inevitably unleashed by the universal experience and language of those who have experienced modern warfare firsthand. Is it a warning or a threat? Or is it simply a Hemingway-like recitation by a reporter who has also numbingly experienced such warfare? Does the human spirit (or perhaps even the conscience of a single individual) eventually triumph here over its basest tendencies, or are we left to ponder that all Americans are just as vulnerable as any other people of becoming genocidal monsters when given the opportunity?
I can't answer these questions from the text. Perhaps the author intended it that way. But, if so, the reader is simply left at the end muttering, "The horror. Oh, the horror." Perhaps we Americans need to see and confront the horrors we create now, but how should the author and the reader go on to live life somehow after returning from the war, as they must do? The book's characters provide no guidance.

Easily the best new book I've read this year. The question "how does one become radicalized" is answered for Sarat, the main character, as we watch her story unfold: from a loving family to an embittered woman ready to hurt anyone who has hurt her people or caused them pain.

The America in this novel is chillingly possible (save perhaps the easy race relations that exist between its pages) and as such, it's both terrifying and a wonderful read, despite depictions of every atrocity one can imagine taking place. When I read older classics, I often find myself wondering how the author could predict the future so well. I can only hope America does something to change course before we all have to live in anything even close to Omar El Akkad's American War.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

This is another novel I expected to love a lot and give a five star but it didn't happen. I think my reading came close to Days Without End which had a similar war theme. Strangely Days Without End was a historical novel and many times I felt it was a Dystopian story. American War, on the other hand, is a Dystopian novel set in 2075 and most of the time I felt like it was a historical novel that was set in the times of American Civil war.

The story is action-packed and gets very intense at times. The characters were well defined. But there was something that really did not get me too deep inside this book. Honestly, I can't put my finger on it. I might need to reread this book again after few years to see how I like it then.

A dystopian look at a war torn country (once America) after the Second Civil War. My biggest issue with this book was that there was no narrative arc, no sense of what the story was about or building up to an end. And it was never clear what the different fighting factions stood for, what the war was about, how it evolved, what life was like in the north. It's a muddled message at best.

I found this to be well written and frightening, a near future dystopia that seems a little too possible. It can also be read as recreating the Palestine of today in the southeastern US of the future. The message that we all suffer from the same human failings in pretty obvious. At the same time, the characters, including those who cause enormous suffering a so well-drawn, you can believe in them and understand why they do terrible things. The author is an angry man, but his anger never interferes with the story, because he is also a fine writer. I didn't find the premise far-fetched - wish I did.

Amazing look at how a terrorist is born and a plausible scenario for the future of the United States bent on seeing divisions more than similarities. The story is set in the near future and the narrator tells the story of Sara T Chestnut, known as Sarat. The epigraph at the start of the book gives a clue: "The one you must punish is the one who punishes you."- Kitab Al-Aghani (The Book of Songs). It is an amazing portrait of a character who is formed, scarred and mutilated by war. One reviewer said that the prologue needs to be read again after you finish the book. Yes. It makes much more sense after you read the ending. At the end of the prologue you read: " This isn't a story about war. It's about ruin." Yes, El Akkad really describes that ruin and its cost. An amazing book.

Beasts of the Southern Wild + To Kill. Mockingbird + all the other clumsy dystopias out there = American War. It is dull, implausible and richly tedious. When you get to the end and add things up, it's remarkable how little has actually happened. There is so much borrowing from other works. And a slow start! Wow. The first 170 pages are exposition. It was torture to read. A one-note dirge. It has no literary style or grace, no structure, no real suspense. It's a mishmash of odd borrowings, tedious details for details' sake and preposterous action. Couldn't wait to put it down.

Picked this up in my Book of the Month club box, and I'm glad I did. It's a hell of a novel for a first novel. I have a weakness for texts that use the inclusion of articles or transcripts or little bits of historical papers as a way to provide information and further the story. It feels vivid, this strange and terrible American war. But also familiar, like the wars I've grown up watching on television. Honestly the only thing that rings strange for me is that racial politics aren't more of a thing. But overall I think it's a really good book and worth a read.

I drive a lot for a living so I decided to try my local library and see what they had. Low and behold, they offer free audio book rentals that I can put on my phone. So I didn't get a chance to read this but I did listen to it. The first halfish of this book was pretty slow and character building. I didn't know if I was going to finish it. After the main twist in Sarat's life though, it was hard for me to not listen to it. The premise is at the end of the current century where the North and South are in another civil war due to fossil fuels. I would recommend this if you can get past the first half and like reading (or listening). If you have a short attention span I would look elsewhere!

A near-future post-apocalyptic novel, in which civil war breaks out in America over the use of fossil fuel, with global warming as a complicating factor. While I would have liked more “history” - I always want more “How did we get here?” details - I found the scenario plausible enough to support my belief, especially since my first interest is and always has been character development. In this, the author certainly did not disappoint. Told from the point of view of Sarat, a young girl when our story opens, and her nephew Benjamin, this book walks us through the creation of a martyr and/or a terrorist, depending on which side of a line you happen to be standing on. A heart-breaker of a book, with moments of painful, clear-sighted Truth: “Even then, at such a young age, she understood that smile for what it was: a mask atop fear, a balm for the crippling insecurity of childhoods deeply damaged. They were fragile boys who wore it, and their fragility demanded menace. Sarat knew the boys better than they knew themselves. And she knew there was no winning this dare. That was the point - for there to be no winning, only different magnitudes of losing.”

The start of the Second American Civil War begins in 2074 when Sarat Chestnut is 6 years old, and already an exceptionally tough kid who is large for her age, Sarat’s strength and resilience only grows and is further tested. This adult dystopian novel of environmental change and politics reads like historical fiction but within a future-context. In that way the book is uniquely written and quite cleverly so but sometimes the sequencing is difficult to follow and the story doesn’t always do the characters justice.

Omar and the future of what we are familiar with this was recommended to me and i think and feel this as a great read for a book group dealing with many serious issues and overall approach of what will become of us with are actions in relation to what we call home or a state or a county and overall community.
Many things to ponder on.
Take notes or write in the margins observation of things going on around you.
Their is so much left still...

Omar El Akkad's "American War" has received plaudits for being a frightening exploration of a dystopian future should current political bile remain unchecked. It would be a far better book if it had done so. Instead, this is a story about radicalization amputated and grafted on to an environment in which the Egyptian-Qatari-Canadian author has made a ironic but quintessentially American mistake: he has imposed his own experience and expectations on a society in which he's not culturally fluent. The result is a plot filled with sad but occasionally interesting characters and worldbuilding that requires a massive suspension of disbelief. The radicalization story is worth a couple of stars, the worldbuilding none, so 2 stars overall.

El Akkad has a robust journalistic background, having covered Gitmo, the Arab Spring, Ferguson, and the war in Kandahar for one of Canada's best newspapers, The Globe and Mail. While he apparently spent time visiting for research on the book, what he does not have is a feel for many of the institutions of the United States, and almost none whatsoever for the South. This turns what should be one of the most compelling reasons to read the book - how America descended into a second civil war and how that war proceeded to destroy the bonds that kept people together - into an albatross around the rest of the story. Global warming destroys the coasts, four states in the South seceded after petroleum was outlawed as a last ditch response, Marines massacred civilians in South Carolina (the author conveniently skips over how the long history of Southerners being an outsized presence in the military would affect this casus belli, let alone explaining what happened to all the bases in the rebelling states), and suddenly we have a twenty year long civil war that doesn't do much more than to serve as a plot device for a story borrowed directly from displaced person camps and madrasas - how a young refugee girl from Louisiana became radicalized enough to kill her own.

That story ebbs and flows somewhat awkwardly (partially due to a narrative choice informing the reader from the first chapter how this will all conclude), but the main character, Sarat, does partake in a route of despair that will be very familiar to those who have read elsewhere of the terrorist's - rather than the hero's - journey. It's an interesting argument for how the underpinnings of recruitment that have worked for everyone from the Muslim Brotherhood to Daesh might evolve if democratic structures and culture broke down in the United States. While it's rather predictable, it's marginally worth a read.

Integrating this, though, is another matter. Some of the more tenuous aspects that call for disbelief include 5 more Arab Springs producing a democratic superpower in the Middle East which seems to neither behave like a democracy nor wonder about a nuclear deterrent should it not, the barest ghost of a triumphant China, a Europe that seems to have shriveled up and disappeared without explanation or interest, a largely unexplored Mexican protectorate of US territory, an American government degenerated enough to be willing to blithely commit biological warfare against its own citizens in rebellion, and last but not least, dancing around the troublesome details of how this particular war could actually take place over a twenty year period. All these serve as and are supposed to support significant plot points, and by themselves are troubling enough.

The biggest issue, though, is that outside of rebelling, the South he paints doesn't resemble the one of the last 350 years, and as such doesn't seem particularly likely to evolve in the next 60. Race, religion, and politics have essentially vanished as social arbiters save for a couple of random comments about Catholics, some faith healing, and one inconsequential blackmail threat. That El Akkad comes up with a minority, atheist, lesbian protagonist and then blissfully ignores how even one of these characteristics might affect her interactions with her fellow Southerners is one of the odder and deeper plot holes in recent memory. In general, the culture he creates is bland, generic, and tribal - the militias could come straight out of Lebanon or Iraq - and outside of his imposition of monolithic hatred towards the Blue North (in a none-too-subtle nod, the South's color is Red), it is both unrecognizable and extraordinarily shallow.

The result is a book that just doesn't work beyond a surface level, much like an inch of topsoil being transplanted from elsewhere that seems lovely until you kick up rocks underneath. A good contrast is last year's Gold Fame Citrus, which had its own narrative issues in an equally brutal environment, but possessed an author well enough versed in the underlying history and culture of the West to translate it to a unique dystopia with reasonable underpinnings. So many times outsiders can bring an incredibly valuable set of observations to a culture that its participants aren't aware of, and not everyone has to be Faulkner on the South, but here El Akkad seemingly just doesn't get enough of what makes things work to write about how it falls apart. There will certainly still be readers who will view this as nitpicking and be satisfied, but many more will likely scratch their heads at the odd congruence of a story and culture transposed onto an America that doesn't feel quite right. 2 stars, and unfortunately not worth all the hype.

Readers who love a thick and hearty dystopian soup are those most likely to enjoy Omar El Akkad’s debut novel titled, American War. Set in the last quarter of the 21st century, the novel presents a depressing picture: a second American civil war; the damage from climate change; life in an internment camp; foreign powers exploiting American weakness; and huge loss of life from a plague. Akkad uses protagonist Sarat Chestnut as the instrument through which we learn about life in this uncivil society, and Akkad portrays the ability of one individual to make a huge difference in the world.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Right from the beginning, I had a hard time believing that there would be such a strong division of The United States over fossil fuels? The writing was barely okay: I frequently had to stop and reread and sometimes backtrack to figure out what was going on. I felt that much of the writing was setting the scene, and not telling the story. Quite honestly, much of the writing felt like a first or second draft. The characters were not well developed, and I had a hard time caring about any of them. Sarat, the main character, was rather unlikable, and that was probably the author's intention, but it produced a "not caring about her" feeling in me. I do not recommend this book. If you want to read a couple of really great books somewhat along the same line, read Station Eleven and The Dog Stars.

American War is a devastatingly poignant novel given our current political (and physical) climate. I was immediately hooked upon seeing the imagined map of a disfigured United States in 2075, ravaged by climate change and civil war. The eerie sense of plausibility in the narrative conceit combined with this former journalist's knowing depictions of refugee camps, detention centers, drone warfare, and the emotional scarring that armed conflict exacts on the human psyche make for a novel that creeps right into the reader's skin. As a native and current southerner, I was also struck by the clever way in which El Akkad mines the rich veins of never-ending resentment and victimhood that imbues so much of the southern character today, even a century and half outside our "first" American Civil War.

For a book as highly rated as this was prior to release, it was surprisingly crappy.

I suppose that it has a certain relevance now, not long after the election of Trump and the growing polarization of the American electorate. The basic idea is that a second Civil War has happened. Instead of fighting over slavery, the battle is now over forbidden fossil fuels. The southern states still love their cars, and will fight to keep them. A great wall has been built--not to keep out illegal immigrants, but to quarantine an entire southern state that has been infected with some kind of biological agent that makes the victims...zombies? It's not really clear. But it apparently requires constant vigilance for decades.

Meanwhile, the North and South continue to fight--also for decades--and even though we are well into the future, the warfare is a weird admixture of primitive guerrilla activity coupled with uncontrolled drones that kill indiscriminately and that, apparently, never run out of fuel or bombs or ammunition.

This book presents a dystopic future with smatterings of global warming, human engineered pandemics, environmental degradation, but none of it particularly realistic or illuminating--and totally lacking in purpose or logic. I finished it mainly because I had nothing better to read at this time. I'd advise passing on it and avoid wasting the time I regretfully spent.

I was prepared to love this book, but didn't. Interesting idea, disappointing execution. Nothing wrong with the writing, but for me the pacing and focus were offputting: Glacially slow segments that jump-cut to years later; unengaging, one-dimensional cast of wounded characters (other than Sarat); unconvincing, to me, nightmare vision of a dystopian future. Struck me more as an attempt to help Americans understand the horror of wars in the Middle East than as a work about the future of the USA itself. That's not a bad thing, but not my kind of book.

I had no assumptions going into this - I didn't really know too much about it - and therefore was repeatedly impressed rather than disappointed that the book didn't live up to my expectations. For one thing it's very well-written. For another, it's like looking into a crystal ball to the not-so-distant future.

I started reading this the same week France and Volvo (in Sweden) came out with their plans to switch to all electric cars in the next 25 years. The divisions between the Red and the Blue states grow deeper by the day. Climate change is real. It seems like this is the cautionary tale people should be reading right now.

Highly recommended.

This is book is really impressive. It creates an America gone to hell in a believable fashion. But more importantly,
it gives us characters we care about to tell us a story that really flies from beginning to end.
I am drawn to these future apocalypse books but rarely satisfied. They either create a world that
is hard to grab on to, or one that has wooden characters.
El Akkad not only avoids both shortcomings but creates a gritty, painful, yet emotionally grabbing world
that will linger.
Really fine book.

This is a well written novel to read, yet very dark, difficult subject matter--all the more so, because it is too close to what could be true 50+ years from now. It tells the story of one family's experience of what could happen in the US if destabilizing forces such as global warming, the end of fossil fuel, US coastal cities disappearing into the oceans escalates, and new super powers arise who want to keep the US weak. The author imagines if what has happened in the Middle East is turned on us. I give four stars instead of five because "the future" as depicted in the novel is uneven in how it is imagined.

I wanted to love this novel. I really did. I liked the premise of the plot. But just moved too slow for me. Nothing ever seemed to happen. And I could never connect with the characters. I didn't make it to the end.

One of the BEST books I've read in a long time. Couldn't put it down and now that I've finished it, I can't stop thinking about it. Its scary how this book has the potential to become prophecy. Extremely well written with the kind of detail that makes it seem like it really happened. I think the New York Times Book Review said it best:

"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. The only comfort the story offers is that it's a work of fiction. For the time being, anyway"
An incredible debut. GRADE: A . HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I don't like science fiction or books set in a dystopian future, so I read chose this book reluctantly, getting it from the library rather than investing in something I probably wouldn't finish nor enjoy. It is riveting. It is disturbing. It is frightening, given our current political climate, that another civil war could rip the country apart. The story flows naturally and grips the imagination. Others have given you the scenario so I won't repeat. It is worth your while to read it.

I finished American War last night and spent this morning reading interviews with the author. I have no idea how someone of his age could have acquired such wisdom (and such self-awareness too). I recommend the interviews after reading, not before.

This is a humbling book, one that reminds us that sometimes "the course of life recruited you" enabled by the lies we tell ourselves over and over and over.

In the past few months I've read this book and Exit West while I've been laboring through a thick book on slavery as the foundation of capitalism in the US, The Half Has Never Been Told. Three different stories all reflecting each other.

I just can't agree with the boffo reviews of this particular book, which has a very timely premise but some flaws, not least of which is the implausibility of a handful of Southern states fighting the rest of the U.S. to a standstill in a civil war. Sorry, but they wouldn't stand a chance. The novel also suffers from having a central character - Sarat - who is not just hard to like but downright unsympathetic, even before she is radicalized by brutal mistreatment. .

This wasn't exactly what I thought it was about based on the jacket, it was more complex. Couldn't give it 5 stars because a few things didn't add up (race and religion not major themes in the South, very hard to believe as another reviewer pointed out) and I got a little bored in the 3rd quarter. Overall i found it very thought provoking and, for lack of a better word, sad.

Good characterization, writing and story telling. Minus one star for the heavy handed overlay of Dixie as Palestine. The author is not a good world builder and fails to carry it off. My willful sense of disbelief refused to swallow his world. It was a too obvious mix of current modern politics tropes. Still, worth reading once but not twice.

I loved this book and want to encourage others to read it. Anyone into history, war, politics, or just a good story would probably enjoy. The first couple sections feel a little disjointed, but it's all part of laying the foundation for the narrative, which gets stronger as the story unfolds. Read this book.

This is a complex story that's hard to summarize in a review. The author deals with themes like patriotism, revenge, family and pain. It's beautifully written, and it doesn't hold back. The characters are written with incredible compassion and depth.

Well worth the time to read slowly and savor

This book is outside of the realm of what I normally read, but I'm SO glad that I gave it a chance. It absolutely blew me away and terrified me.

Living in the states, it's easy to feel disconnected from war because outside of watching the news, we're generally not experiencing and witnessing tragedy firsthand. This book shows just as easily the US can fall into warfare, an extremist mindset, and how we can turn on each other. There are so many parallels to the Civil War of the 19th century and to today's climate, it can be a bit overwhelming at times. Will history repeat itself? Could this really happen?

I'd highly recommend.

American War takes place in a near future America, during the 2nd civil war. It was a fascinating study in nationalism and psychological manipulation. Two horrific events are known: a suicide bomber takes out a large group of Northeners during peace talks, and plague is released that kills off a large part of the population.

A girl and her family are Living in Louisiana and are thrown into the fray, and we follow her experiences. The story is grim, but keeps you caught up in a story set in a very believable future.

A very brave attempt to project our North American society based on our present society. Was hard to put down and ended as well as could be imagined given the circumstances. The development of a strong female protagonist added much to the story as did the carefully researched and predictable facts and foibles of our world and American society.

The venal fomentation of hate and divisiveness which has long been the strategy of the Republican party, has now careened out of control into the surreal ascendance of a sociopathic, narcissistic moron to the presidency; a man who will stoop to any level to aggrandize himself and gain more power, riches, and worship, who lies with the ease others of us breathe, and who encourages civil disobedience and violence, encouraging a class war --- a conflict built mostly on myth, fictions, and unfounded bigotries and fear of "other" --- using the tactics of fascist authoritarians throughout time to distract the people from his pillaging of the country, from his complete ineptitude at and disinterest in bringing prosperity and union to the people he is meant to serve and lead.

Interpret and project from these signs and omens and realities what a future might be like if we continue along this path of rupture, acrimony, and animosity, and you will arrive at the place where Omar El Akkad's sadly prescient novel, American War, begins and ends.

Which might be why it took me almost a week to finish it. There is no other reason: the writing was very, very good; the plotting and pace excellent; the protagonist, Sarat Chestnut, drawn with complicated, fascinating detail. But, the fact that less than a year ago the goings on, atrocities, and unhappy endings of this novel would have seemed an outrageous, impossible dystopian take-off, but now, since November of 2016, seem not only possible, but likely, made this --- for me --- a very difficult read despite all it has to recommend it. So, be warned.

Interesting story, some characters bigger than life. Some connections stretch your imagination to the breaking point. Can't say as I recommend this book. My son started it and I read it all to tell him how it ended. I understand why he stopped reading it I just plowed on.

The second war between the states is triggered not by human slavery but by those who are held in bondage to King Oil. Again the southern aristocracy cannot see the harm its lifestyle brings to the greater population and goes to war to protect its right to have its own way. Told by a grandchild and historic documents, the story pulls no punches and reveals the horror of war.

This dystopian novel imagines an America several decades in the future immersed in a second Civil War.

Sarat is six years old and living with her family in Louisiana when the war begins. Soon they get displaced from their home and wind up in a refugee camp, where Sarat is mentored by an older man who provides her with a unique perspective on the current state of affairs.

The book follows Sarat through to adulthood when, following decades of tragedy and suffering, she finds herself hellbent on revenge against those who have wronged her.

This is a story about the devastating effects of war—and one that doesn't seem entirely improbable given our deeply polarized political climate.
As compelling as the world that the author creates may be, the real strength lies in Sarat's character development. The details of the war and the various conflicts are muddy at times, but Sarat's journey is what kept me engaged.

This isn't quite on the same level as revered dystopian classics, but it's a solid read for fans of the genre.

Omar El Akkad is a Canadian/Egyptian journalist who has worked in Afghanistan, Egypt, Guantanamo Bay among other places. He has taken his experiences and imagined if much of what he saw occurred in the USA and not the Middle East. He sets the second American Civil War in the years 2075-2095. Climate change and rising seas have wiped out the population centers on the east and west coast, Florida is gone and people have moved inland, causing much strife. The states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina have been cut off from the rest of the country. Violent storms, drought, and biological warfare have wiped out modern advancements in our society. That is one of his messages, that war and conflict push back societies back in time. He applies things he has seen in the Middle East during his reporting and moved them to the USA. There are refugee camps, suicide bombers being radicalized by elders, drones, etc. The Middle Eastern countries have united into the Bouazizi Empire, and they act to keep the American Civil War going, meanwhile, living in a comfortable, well-functioning economy.

Another of the points I think El Akkad is trying to get across, is that with the same conditions as countries like Afghanistan, Palestine, etc., Americans would act as they do there today. Human nature is the same everywhere. He was trying to show how people become radicalized and the damage that detention camps like Guantanamo have on people.

It is a good story and I wanted to read it to the end. I won't give away plot details, but for me, it was a page-turner. I thought some of the premises were a bit unbelievable, however, the story made me consider what impact climate change will have on us and the strong political divisions currently in our nation.

What if all the news you read from Syria or Palestine was taking place in the American South? Would it change your view of the people involved? Read this book to find out. A very smart, well-written and interesting thought experiment with well-drawn characters.

This is not a book about climate change. In this book climate change has already ruined the USA, but it does not explain the developments. It's merely the dystopian setting for a novel about a girl who grows up in wartime. Even here the book fails to tell us why this girl went where no one else did; I supposed it was some unexplained hardness in her personality.

You have to read over a hundred pages of gritty depressing dystopia before the plot begins to thicken.

Omar El Akkad’s American war attempts to detail the struggles of the current middle east through the looking glass of a second American civil war set in the year 2074. However, due to a lack of understanding in the setting, the book is disjointed, illogical, and convoluted.
American War centers around the life of a young refugee girl named Sarat, who lives an idyllic life with her family in southern America. Strangely, these children do not attend school, use technology, or read. Akkad proposes that somehow in the next 40 years southern America will forget how to read. This issue is never addressed in the book however, and technology is never used by the south, which seems almost impossible in a world where the majority of vehicles are fueled by solar panels. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of the issues faced by American War. Sarat’s peaceful life is soon brought to a close when her father is forced to find migrant work due to an approaching war between the north and south of America. This war centers around the banning of oil, pitting the entirety of America at odds with its southern states.. Strangely, Alaska and North Dakota, which house some of the world’s largest untapped oil fields, and who would be some of the most affected states seem to be indifferent to this war. After her father fails to return from his migrant labor, Sarat’s mother and two siblings move to a refugee camp in Mississippi, called Camp Patience. Sarat spends the remainder of her childhood in this camp, eventually meeting a self-proclaimed teacher named Albert Gaines. This man begins to further educate Sarat about the world that she lives in, showing her how the world appears in the year 2074. He utilizes a slow but methodical system of psychological manipulation, making Sarat hate the north for all she believes it has taken from her. The greatest empire in the world is the democratically governed bouszwazi empire, which inhabits the entire middle eastern peninsula. Using Gaines as a vessel, Akkad proposes that the middle east, the stage for centuries of conflict and warfare, which is currently inhabited by two religions (islam and judaism) that are sworn against each other, both with nuclear powered countries on their sides,will transform itself from within with no outside forces to become the greatest economy on the planet.. It is at this point that Akkad’s ability to build a believable world begins to slip away, and later in the book, when a northern army sweeps into the refugee camp inhabited by Sarat and her family, committing an act of genocide by shooting the helpless unarmed refugees, his limited knowledge of the American political system and culture begin to show. After all, Akkad’s America still has freedom of the press, and in a country where one unlawful police killing cannot go unnoticed, the feasibility of killing an entire refugee camp without major civilian outrage seems nigh on impossible.
After observing Akkad’s broken, unrealistic vision of the world, many readers would conjecture that even if his world building is flawed to it’s very core, his overarching message may still be strong enough to prove a solid, concrete point. So then, what point is Akkad attempting to prove in his story of desperation, with Sarat, the southern refugee girl as his canvas. To do this, his readers must understand what happens to Sarat after the northern attack on her refugee camp. After surviving the attack by hiding in a pile of bodies, Sarat directs her pain and loss at the north, which is understandable, given her circumstances. Sarat is given a rifle by a southern sympathizer, and sneaks through northern lines, sniping one of the north’s primary generals. Soon after this, she is imprisoned and questioned by northern soldiers. She is held in a prison for a further three years, and when she gets out the war is over, and her country is starting to rebuild itself. Instead of being happy that her nephew and other future families would not grow up with the pain and devastation that she was forced to experience, Sarat is angry at the southerners for “just giving up”. She inhabits a small shed behind her sister’s house, preferring it to the bedroom that was offered to her. A few months after she moves to this shed, Sarat is contacted by one of her old southern warrior friends. They offer her a chance to get even, and Sarat, after knowing the havoc war wreaked on her own family and many others, takes it. She injects her body with a bio-engineered plague, and wheels herself into the peace treaty negotiations, killing herself, and millions more in the ensuing plague. At this moment, Akkad is showing his audience that war breeds hate, and hate only breeds more hate. This idea, that instead of leaving the world peacefully, knowing that your children will grow up safely, and instead making your funeral a bitter, resentful final payback, is so unamerican that any society where it would seem understandable to commit such an act is one that most of his readers would never want to be a part of, and maybe that’s the point.
In short, Akkad’s book is one that will be read by future generations, who will either accept it as a masterpiece of how radicalization appears, or they will reject it for it’s unrealistic and sloppy world building. If his readers can forgive the latter, then there is a small chance that Akkad’s book will take its place: on the shelf in between dystopian visions of the future, and stories of horrific wars in the past.

This book offers a chilling perspective of a future America that seems all the more plausible with each passing day and the current state of polarization in America today. A second civil war and the decline of American hegemony and influence, as well as the devastating effects of climate change, are a very frightening possible future. Let's hope this work of fiction never becomes reality.

AMERICAN WAR is simultaneously current and far away, a reminder that we are divided and on the brink and yet united in our American-ness. Told personally, specifically, and above all plausibly, this is required reading for anyone who is thoughtful about their patriotism, our collective violence, and the political bubbles in which we reside.

The premise of this book is far more interesting than the book itself. I got 70 pages in and it just couldn’t hold my attention. The writing was good, but characters were like cardboard cutouts and the story just sputtered around waiting for something interesting to happen.

Powerful, harrowing account of modern warfare and survival. El Akkad envisions a future America devastated by climate change and war that is an all to real present state of many regions of the world today.

Suprisingly well-written dystopian novel, really captures the mindset and sub-culture that makes the South what it is and always will be. On a larger scale, a painful examination of the endless cycle of violence both given and received during any armed conflict.

On the day of The Fight (Mayweather vs McGregor) no less. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Sarat and the people with whom she intertwined. There are a lot of aspects to this novel that I would prefer the reader find out and ruminate on themselves but it is worth it.

It's been a point of pride that I finish the books I start, but I couldn't finish this one. If that disqualifies the review, I certainly understand, so by all means stop reading. I've seldom had such serious problems with a read so early, but here they are:

First, I just don't think the South would attempt to secede and would actually go to war over its right to use fossil fuels. I found the whole premise ludicrous. Not to mention the idea that Mexico would invade and capture almost all of California along with a whole lot of other territory. Mexico? Not credible. Also, the author seems to envision some kind of unified Middle Eastern Muslim Empire becoming one of the two dominant world powers. This would mean that the Sunni and Shi'a factions of that world would have reached some kind of amicable alliance. Considering that those factions have been murdering each other for about 1400 years, this was another element I found totally lacking in credibility.

Second, I didn't buy that a significant part of the war would involve "martyrs" who were suicide bombers. Suicide (Except by cop.) is not part of the American psyche. Based on everything I have read about violent Americans throughout my life, Americans almost always use guns to kill people. Occasionally we use bombs, but we are not suicide bombers. Again, I found the whole idea ludicrous.

Third, the writing, as far as I got, was lifeless. It didn't just describe a lifeless world, the writing itself was lifeless. That's totally subjective, I know, but there it is. To my eyes and brain, this was one boring book.

by Omar El Akkad
published by: Picador, 2017

In the near future, climate change, rising sea levels and war have changed the political and geographical landscape, with power shifted away from the US and into the hands of China and the Arabic Bouazizi Empire. North America has suffered catastrophic flooding and is in the grip of a second civil war over the banning of fossil fuels. The south won’t give up. South Carolina is shut off because of a crippling plague.

American War centres on Sarat, one of twins, whose family tries to make it to the north, to escape their hand-to-mouth existence in the south, but end up living for years in a sprawling refugee camp. There’s a constant threat of ‘Birds’, drones flying overhead to drop bombs, as well as from ‘homicide’ bombers carrying bombs or bacteria and viruses. The novel gives a bleak portrait of how an intelligent girl, marked out by her unusual physical size, becomes radicalised, and the terrible consequences of global warming and world war. Sarat’s story is pieced together, from her own diaries and from historical documents, by her dying nephew.

In this, Omar el Akkad’s first novel, we see a vividly realised world – the logical consequence of our love of fossil fuels and indifference to the scientific evidence for climate change. The novel is chilling in its bleak vision. But, clunky dialogue, too much ‘telling’ and a tendency to include whole chunks of description, make it disappointing. With a few more drafts and the possibility of hope, surely essential to any novel about the human species, it could have been a superb debut.

Really enjoyed this. It's a bit depressing as you can see how we could get from here to there, but very well written. Characters draw you in. They are all flawed, which makes them relatable. Worth a look.

This was a very interesting take on what the future could hold, based a lot on actual history extrapolated to modern themes. I thought it would be more of a kiddy book (Hunger Games/Divergent) but is definitely written for a more mature audience.

Even with the problems of global warming, I find it impossible to imagine a few rogue southern states taking on the might of the U.S. military and surviving for more than 21 hours, let alone 21 years. And as for having a Mexican Protecterate which includes Texas ... !

Actually there were few references to the “American War” - at least up to half way - before I gave up. It was mainly about life in a refugee camp, replete with the most mundane and boring details - eating, writing letters, getting base balls out of sewage ... “The Road” it ain't.

I was able to accept the dystopian premise, but I could not accept the lifeless, detached, unemotional third-person writing style. Then I got to Part IV, and I "got it" when it finally switched to a first person narrative as we meet young Benjamin. Then, finally, some brief emotional connection is established with the reader, but frankly, it is too little, too late, and the overall ending is too rushed and abrupt.

For a reader to wade through all the darkness, casual violence, political insurrection and mayhem, you must CARE about the characters. The distant and unemotional third-person writing style for three-fourths if the story never makes that happen. Just think about how much more powerful this novel would have been if written in first person from Sarat's point-of-view, or even alternating chapters with her brother. I think there was probably a decent book in here somewhere, but this isn't it.

I am sure the quality of the written word is fine. But, when I purchase a hardbound copy of a book, I expect the paper and the edges of each page to be of the highest quality. This version uses the cheapest "$1 a book Book Club" paper and raggedy edges. Many folks still choose to buy a physical book because they like to hold it in their hands. This book does not have that "Hygge" touch. The" warm and cozy sit by the winter fire and read a good book" is missing. Going to try the paperback to see if it is any better. Hate paperbacks, but sometimes they feel better. Hours with a book...it has to feel good too.

I heard about this book on NPR and was intrigued with the idea. I read the first 50 pages and man is it slow. Nothing really happens. It describes the life of a poor southern family in the midst of this civil war. I get it. Times are tough. There is destruction everywhere. Food is scarce. Family members are dying. Beyond that, there is very little plot. Kudos to the author for the concept and the detail, but the storytelling is just not there. Maybe it gets better but I'm not willing to risk further boredom to find out.

2.25 Stars

From the description of this book I was expecting to really like this one. However, I found that I just couldn't ever fully immerse myself in this novel. Initially I found the subject matter and events intriguing, but the story and characters quickly began to grow stagnant for me. Dystopian literature fascinates me and I can make certain parallels to other stories I am familiar with from the genre, but this American Civil War just never held my interest. This is definitely dark subject matter, something I don't shy away from, but more than anything I just found this story depressing. Yes, there are certainly lessons to be learned from analyzing the polarity of the two American factions, but it just became tedious and boring for me.

While I couldn't get into this book, I can imagine plenty of people would be more than happy to read it. I would recommend this book for lovers of political and dystopian fiction.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Simply put I found this novel to be nothing more than a platform for the author to air his grievances about the social/political dynamics of the world as it is in 2017.
It did not hold my interest and I found myself skimming paragraphs and pages wondering if it was worth finishing.
You will either like it or you won't, but to borrow the words of another reviewer "it is not worthy of the praise it has received."

As a futuristic dystopian novel of an America disabled by a new southern succession and a civil war this novel is culturally tone deaf regarding the reactionary American South. For a dystopian work to succeed it must be plausible as a projection of a society into a future in which current cultural trends become dominating apocalyptic forces. This novel fails.

American War is set in the second American Civil War of 2074, in which Southern states secede, this time after a ban on fossil fuels (?). Rising sea levels cover much of Louisiana. There are weaponized drones, plagues, suicide bombings, and Guantanamo-style prison camps on U.S. soil. The minority, lesbian (?) heroine of the novel, Sarat, is imprisoned in a displaced-persons camp, wherein she becomes radicalized.

I love dystopian novels, but the setting and premise first have to make sense--current events must come to a boil and then we are ready to begin. But global warming, identity politics, and oil bans as a feasible basis for civil war? I don't think so. Southern vs. northern culture, which is complex and rooted deeply in history, is given only a perfunctory nod here, when you'd expect a profound, insightful treatment in a story with a setting like this.

Why resort to overt political statements set in 2017 for a novel set some 60 years in the future? The reader then has to spend some time wondering about the plausibility of the author's scenario, distracting attention from getting properly engrossed in the characters and unfolding events. After all, one doesn't have to look far to extrapolate from current events, set the novel in the near (not distant) future, and leave out the sermonizing and political causes to produce something more relevant and easier with which to relate. John Brown's State of Terror treads much of the same ground as American War, but with far more sophistication. You can find it here: State of Terror

As a futuristic dystopian novel of an America disabled by a new southern succession and a civil war this novel is culturally tone deaf regarding the reactionary American South. For a dystopian work to succeed it must be plausible as a projection of a society into a future in which current cultural trends become dominating apocalyptic forces. This novel fails.

American War is set in the second American Civil War of 2074, in which Southern states secede, this time after a ban on fossil fuels (?). Rising sea levels cover much of Louisiana. There are weaponized drones, plagues, suicide bombings, and Guantanamo-style prison camps on U.S. soil. The minority, lesbian (?) heroine of the novel, Sarat, is imprisoned in a displaced-persons camp, wherein she becomes radicalized.

I love dystopian novels, but the setting and premise first have to make sense--current events must come to a boil and then we are ready to begin. But global warming, identity politics, and oil bans as a feasible basis for civil war? I don't think so. Southern vs. northern culture, which is complex and rooted deeply in history, is given only a perfunctory nod here, when you'd expect a profound, insightful treatment in a story with a setting like this.

Why resort to overt political statements set in 2017 for a novel set some 60 years in the future? The reader then has to spend some time wondering about the plausibility of the author's scenario, distracting attention from getting properly engrossed in the characters and unfolding events. After all, one doesn't have to look far to extrapolate from current events, set the novel in the near (not distant) future, and leave out the sermonizing and political causes to produce something more relevant and easier with which to relate. John Brown's State of Terror treads much of the same ground as American War, but with far more sophistication. You can find it here: State of Terror

Mr. El Akkad is a good writer on page to page basis but this book ultimately does not deliver on the promise of his prose. Where it fails is 1)that you never really feel you are in the later 21st Century. Sure, new empires or nations have arisen from the conflation of failed States, and coastlines have changed because of the rising sea level ( only far too much to be realistic- it will take a few centuries at even accelerated rates of ice sheet melting for the coastlines to change as much as they have in this book ) but the technology is basically 20th century. Nothing feels like the 2070s. 2)It is just a thinly veiled allegory about terrorism and Guantanamo Bay. I rolled by eyes quite a lot in the later third of the book. Tedious and unimaginative. I originally posted this review with 3 stars , but I am down grading it to 1.

I cannot tell if it's the company I keep, the books I read or the reality of Putin, Trump, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, et al but I am a little paranoid these days. For instance, I'm constantly mapping out how I'd get back to HQ and set up a perimeter from where I stand in the city or country as it were. This must read novel is like Skagboys, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Stand and Oryx and Crake combined. Okay, it's nothing like Skagboys but like all these pieces I never wanted it to end and cannot wait to read this one again.

I found this book to be a very important thought experiment in empathy. As an American, I have seen my fellow citizens turn an apathetic eye to the conflicts destroying lives all across this world. We are but a few generations removed from a civil war. This novel reminds us of the horrors of such war and the fragility of our peace. Please read.

I read the book in a couple of days thinking it was going to be something more than it was. The main character Sarah goes through such hardship and spirals into a hatred which in the end is her downfall and America.

This book leads to a conclusion that is unrealistic and unfathomably bad.

The main character, who the author spends the entire book building up, and one sees as an ethical person, in the end does something so horrific that the author can't be forgiven: his character purposefully unleashes a plague on the winning side of American civil war that kills over 100 million people. What is the matter with this author, who would spring such an unrealistic ending on his readers?

This is just bad fiction. Don't read this!