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American War (novel)
''American War'' is the first novel by the Canadian-Egyptian journalist Omar El Akkad. It is set in the United States in the near future, ravaged by climate change and disease, in which the Second Civil War has broken out over the use of fossil fuels. The plot is told by using historiographic metafiction by the future historian Benjamin Chestnut about his aunt, Sarat Chestnut, a climate refugee who is pushed out of Louisiana by the war. The narrative chapters are interspersed with fictional primary documents collected by the narrator. The novel was generally well received and was nominated for several "first book" awards. Plot In 2074, after the passage of a bill in the United States that bans the use of fossil fuels anywhere in the country, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas secede from the Union, starting the Second American Civil War. South Carolina is quickly incapacitated by a virus, known as "The Slow," which makes its inhabitants lethargic, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omar El Akkad
Omar El Akkad (born 1982) is an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, whose novel ''What Strange Paradise'' was the winner of the 2021 Giller Prize. Early life and education Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Doha, Qatar. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Canada, completing high school in Montreal and university at Queen's University at Kingston, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He has a computer science degree. Career For ten years he was a staff reporter for ''The Globe and Mail,'' where he covered the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), war in Afghanistan, military trials at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Guantanamo Bay and the Arab Spring in Egypt. He was most recently a correspondent for the western United States, where he covered Black Lives Matter. His first novel, ''American War (novel), American War,'' was published in 2017. It received positive reviews from critics; ''The New York Times'' book critic Michiko Kakutani compared i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |