An audacious and powerful debut novel about a post-apocalyptic America, for fans of Station Eleven.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

GUARDIAN
OBSERVER
NEW YORK TIMES
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
WASHINGTON POST

2074

AMERICA'S FUTURE IS CIVIL WAR.

SARAT'S REALITY IS SURVIVAL.

THEY TOOK HER FATHER.

THEY TOOK HER HOME.

THEY TOLD HER LIES.

SHE DIDN'T START THIS WAR.

BUT SHE'LL END IT.

'[American War] creates as haunting a post-apocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road, and as devastating a look at the fallout that national events have on an American family as Philip Roth did in The Plot Against America' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

'So sharply observed . . . Hard to resist' Sunday Times

'1984 meets The Handmaid's Tale' Prima


'Convincing, compelling and very bloody scary' Metro

A plausible, terrifying chronicle of the fracture and subsequent annihilation of the US . . . A thrillingly complex adventure that moves from the American south to Alaska and on to the Middle East and North Africa . . . At its heart and most movingly, the novel also becomes a coming-of-age narrative about how easily a curious child faced with horror and powerlessness can transform into a weapon intent on obliteration. As we learn at the end of the prologue, "This isn't a story about war. It's about ruin."'