American War
CBC Books | Posted: February 9, 2017 6:20 PM | Last Updated: October 24, 2018
Omar El Akkad
American War by Omar El Akkad was defended by Tahmoh Penikett on Canada Reads 2018. Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto, defended by Jeanne Beker, was the winner of Canada Reads 2018.
Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky.
- Why Tahmoh Penikett thinks American War should win Canada Reads
- Canada Reads 2018 finale: Watch the replay
- How Canada Reads panellist Tahmoh Penikett is preparing for the debates
- Canada Reads panellist Tahmoh Penikett and American War author Omar El Akkad get to know each other
And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.
- Why Omar El Akkad deleted his entire novel once — then scrambled to save it
- Why Omar El Akkad's novel American War hit close to home for journalist Michelle Shephard
Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during war as one of the Miraculous Generation and now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past — his family's role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others. (From McClelland & Stewart)
- Tahmoh Penikett on the importance of hearing stories of struggle and survival
- How a bad day at work was the push Omar El Akkad needed to turn to fiction
- Omar El Akkad's best writing advice? Spend a lot of time deep in thought
Watch the book trailer
From the book
The sun broke through a pilgrimage of clouds and cast its unblinking eye upon the Mississippi Sea.
The coastal waters were brown and still. the sea's mouth opened wide over ruined marshland, and every year grew wider, the water picking away at the silt and sand and clay, until the old riverside plantations and plastics factories and marine railways became unstable. Before the buildings slid into the water for good, they were stripped of their usable parts by the delta's last holdout residents. The water swallowed the land. To the southeast, the once glorious city of New Orleans became a well within the walls of its levees. The baptismal rights of a new America.
From American War by Omar El Akkad ©2017. Published by McClelland & Stewart.
Panellist interviews
Author interviews
The Canada Reads 2018 contenders
- Mozhdah Jamalzadah, defending The Boat People by Sharon Bala
- Tahmoh Penikett, defending American War by Omar El Akkad
- Greg Johnson, defending Precious Cargo by Craig Davidson
- Jeanne Beker, defending Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto
- Jully Black, defending The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline