American War cover art

American War

a dystopian novel of survival in a divided America, for fans of Station Eleven

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, The Observer, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and The 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.

Omar El Akkad’s powerful debut novel imagines a dystopian future: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague and one family caught deep in the middle. In American War, we’re asked to consider what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons against itself.

 Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction War & Military War Louisiana

Critic reviews

[An] exciting debut . . . what sets this impressive book apart from other dystopian novels is the fully realised plausibility of the scenario El Akkad’s created, the roots of which can be all too easily identified in the world around us today… As diverting a read as this engrossing novel is, American War should no doubt also be read as a cautionary tale.
Informed by writer El Akkad's experiences working as a journalist in Afghanistan and Egypt's Arab Spring, this is a timely and haunting book that reflects our uncertain era.
Impressive . . . the novel’s evocation of the future is so sharply observed and so anchored in an informed reading of present geopolitics that it is hard to resist . . . It comments intelligently on the world today, where displaced millions are broiling in camps or trying to eke out a better life elsewhere, at whatever cost.
[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 . . . El Akkad has written a novel that not only maps the harrowing effects of violence on one woman and her family, but also becomes a disturbing parable about the ruinous consequences of war on ordinary civilians. (Michiko Kakutani)
It is an ambitious concept and El Akkad . . . pulls it off in an imaginative feat of world building . . . American War is an assured debut and El Akkad’s experience as a war reporter lends a grisly realism to proceedings . . . A vivid and nightmarish vision of an all-too-conceivable future.
American War is an extraordinary novel. El Akkad’s story of a family caught up in the collapse of an empire is as harrowing as it is brilliant, and has an air of terrible relevance in these partisan times. (Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven)
[A] striking debut . . . El Akkad is well equipped to speculate on the way in which our present predicaments might spark brutal conflict: he has seen those conflicts for himself . . . the book’s politics and its situations are all too believable.
Disturbingly plausible . . . a tale of a future America torn asunder by its own political and tribal affiliations . . . The novel’s thriller premise notwithstanding, Akkad applies a literary writer’s care to his depiction of Sarat’s psychological unpacking and the sensory details of her life . . . 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. (Justin Cronin)
The comment being made on the Trump administration is impossible to miss in this engaging novel . . . It paints a bleak picture pf the future of humanity if climate change and the divisions of our society are not addressed now.
All stars
Most relevant
I was totally gripped by this story: apart from the validity of such a storyline in our days, when displacement and migration is used to alienate nations, I found that the language is beautiful. Such well constructed sentences, and a narrative that runs in front of your eyes like a film. Like another listener said, this may make a great series for the tv.

What a book to conclude 2025

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The idea that a civil war in the Usa could happen after a global climate change catastrophe later in the 21st century is a smart one. This time the premise of the war. The south wishes to continue using fossil fuels the north has banned them. But the story runs too close to the original 1860s civil war and it veers into at times an evil generational tale involving refugees, militia, plague, torture...its just too ambitious to work properly. I'm also a bit perplexed as to the moral of the tale? It has its moments though.

A bizarre tale that attempts too much

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is an interesting tale of a future dystopia, told in a fragmented style that requires attention to follow; it cannot play in the background. The scenario is one of a civil war, set in a United States of the late 21st century greatly affected by climate change. It has a few issues; there is too much reliance on events & attitudes of the 1860s being moved forward over 200 years; character motivations are occasionally too cliched and some non-sequiturs in the narrative are jarring.

Still, the performance is very good and I had no problem staying with the story to the end.

Close attention required

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Powerful writing. Recommend it.
Perhaps my only criticism is that Coasts vs Heartlands would have been more realistic than North / South in these days of MAGA. So the reliance on reusing the real American Civil Wars dividing felt a little lazy and made the tale feel less realistic - maybe if there was a little more background wrt. environmental issues and southern oil use. But it is a minor flaw.

A great tale of a bitterly divided nation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I think I heard about this book on te 1A podcast during an interview of the author (I could be mistaken). The book sounded interesting and so i pre-ordered the audio book.
I cannot tell you how much this book affected me and how sad I am that there isn't more. It brings closer to reality the ramifications of our actions as a country, from denial of climate change and refusing to change to reusable resources, to prejudices that are developed as the result of a divided country, to how extremism is born.
I would be surprised if this book isn't picked up by English departments to be read and analysed in the same way that Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm are.
I repeat--everyone needs to experience this book.

Every One NEEDS to Experience This

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews