American War

by Omar El Akkad

  I imagine her among the crowd at the Reunification Day Ceremony, silently wheeling herself to the site of the grand parade, the poison radiating from her hulking frame. The crowd would have parted to let her through—they would have seen her torture scars and her shaven head and her hunchbacked spine and they would have felt pity.

  I remember once, when we were swimming in the Savannah, she tried to hold her breath underwater. I sat by the bank and timed her, counting the seconds as best I could. From the size of her, I imagined she would spend an eternity submerged. But her lungs were weak and quickly she surfaced.

  As she sucked in the air, I saw a look on her face I’d never seen before. It was relief, as though she’d spent not a few seconds, but an entire lifetime suffocating, and was now finally free.

  I wonder, sometimes, if that’s the way she must have felt the moment she put the poison inside her and readied to wheel herself into Reunification Square—an overwhelming relief, the opposite of drowning.

  THERE’S ONLY ONE PAGE from Sarat Chestnut’s diaries I didn’t burn. It’s the first page of the first book. I carry it in my wallet, and every now and then I read the opening lines.

  When I was young, I lived with my parents and my brother and my sister in a small house by the Mississippi Sea.

  I was happy then.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I owe Anna Mehler Paperny, Anne McDermid, and Sonny Mehta a debt I can never repay. They are the reason this book exists.

  For their support during the two years it took to complete this novel, and more so for their friendship, I am grateful to Donald Richardson, Wesley Fok, Carolyn Smart, Daniel Dagris, Martin Lendahls, Missy Ladygo, and Isaac Pendergrass.

  At Knopf, Edward Kastenmeier, Tim O’Connell, and Andrew Ridker guided this project through the editing process with patience and care. I’m a better writer for having worked with them. I am also indebted to Suzanne Smith, Leslie Levine, and Nicholas Latimer for their kindness, skill, and enthusiasm.

  And to my mother, Nivin, the bravest, kindest human being I know. Whatever courage I possess is hers, whatever goodness I possess is hers.

  And to Theresa, always, and for so, so much.

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Doha, Qatar, before moving to Canada. He worked as a journalist at The Globe and Mail, and his coverage of a 2006 terror plot earned him a National Newspaper Award for Investigative Reporting (Canada). His other journalistic work includes dispatches from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantánamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, and the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri. He now lives with his wife in the woods just south of Portland, Oregon.

  An Alfred A. Knopf Reading Guide

  American War by Omar El Akkad

  The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of American War, a darkly prescient tale of a country, and a world, torn apart by war in the late twenty-first century, and the young heroine whose commitment to her family takes on the epic proportions of the second installment of America’s battle against itself.

  Discussion Questions

  1. The novel’s epigraphs are taken from two classic texts, an ancient Arabic book of poems and the Bible. What do the quotes and their sources suggest about the conflict that will follow in the novel?

  2. Were you surprised by the way the map of the United States has been altered—the states’ borders and the landmasses themselves—in the projections for 2075? What do you think caused those changes; was it solely politics or other forces as well?

  3. What does the first-person narrator we meet in the prologue explain—and not explain—about how the country has changed, the timeline of the Second American Civil War itself, and the unnamed “she” who has stayed in his memory since his youth?

  4. What is the significance of Sarat’s changing of her own name when she’s a girl? How does that sense of agency and identity develop as she gets older? How does her having a twin sister fit into your understanding of her independence and actions?

  5. The novel presents many different laws, agencies, and other government entities for the future America. Which did you find to be most plausible, including as sources for political conflict that would escalate into war? Are any similar to real-life policies as you’re reading about them today?

  6. Describe the dynamic of the Chestnut family, parents and children. What’s similar and what’s different about domestic life in their world versus today’s and during the time of the first Civil War?

  7. How pervasive is the allegiance to the Free Southern State where the Chestnuts live and throughout the cordoned region? What threats do those who disagree with the cause face?

  8. How closely do the events and details of the Second American Civil War follow those of the first and/or other historical events in American history? After you finished the novel, were you more or less likely to think another such conflict could happen again in this way, on a national or global scale?

  9. How do the interludes of primary source texts—textbook excerpts, government reports, notebooks, letters, etc.—enhance the personal story of Sarat and her family, in terms of the motives for and timeline of the war on a micro and macro level?

  10. What gender stereotypes persist in the future between the young girls and boys, especially once the family reaches Camp Patience? How does Sarat push back against expectations of what she can and cannot do, including in contrast to her sister and brother?

  11. How does the novel complicate the meaning of “home,” in a personal and national level? Does where and how a character lives at any given point determine his or her sense of security or belonging, or does this feeling come from somewhere else?

  12. Sarat sees on Albert Gaines’s, a northerner’s, map different kinds of borders and observes, “To the north the land looked the same but she knew there existed some invisible fissure in the earth where her people’s country ended and the enemy’s began.” (this page) How did such fissures form, and what does the outcome of the war and novel suggest about their ability to be healed?

  13. How does Sarat’s plight speak to Gaines’s statement that “the first thing they try to take from you is your history”? (this page)

  14. What defines one’s sense of “belief” in the novel? Are people more motivated by personal beliefs, or by more institutional ones like religion or politics?

  15. How are certain characters in the novel mythologized? What does this do to their day-to-day existence and their legacy? How do the mythic characters in the book parallel historical figures in what they’re remembered for and how?

  16. Discuss the sequence of events and outcomes of the plague. How does that kind of warfare reflect advancements in society as well as the sense of humanity’s worth?

  17. What is the role of love in the novel? By the story’s conclusion, does the idea of love conquering all still apply, or does revenge supersede it?

  18. Many historians consider the first Civil War to have been a battle of the past (the South) versus the future (the North). Do those distinctions apply to the Second American Civil War, and what does this say about the future—and present—of the country and those running it?

  Suggested Reading

  Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner

  Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

  Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel

  The Road, Cormac McCarthy

  Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

  Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

  Lincoln at the Bardo, George Saunders

  Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer

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  Omar El Akkad, American War