Published in April 2017, Omar El Akkad’s American War narrates the events of the second American Civil War of the 2070s as experienced by Sarat, a lovable girl from Mississippi who grows up in a torn country under a sky filled with AWOL drones.
El Akkad’s experience as a journalist covering stories such as the NATO-led operations in the Middle East and Ferguson’s Black Lives Matter movement is apparent in his vivid, factual, and terrifying portrayals of social collapse and war, particularly its impact on civilians.
One of this book’s definite strengths is its topicality. The war was caused by prohibitions regarding the use of fossil fuels. Tensions between a Democratic North and a Republican South tore the United States of America apart in El Akkad’s universe.
And by now, who hasn’t seen images of refugees crossing oceans or struggling in overcrowded camps on the news? These images have become so common that we are becoming jaded. However, with this recontextualisation, some beautiful imagery of the American South, and one family’s case study, El Akkad evokes the reality and horror of what have become media buzzwords: radicalism, refugee camps, and destruction. American War is a thought experiment as much as it is an exercise in empathy.
A professor once told me that books become classics because they strike a universal chord of some sort. One day, American War will be irrelevant, but for now I am not afraid of calling it a must-read.
