2017 reading challenge (advanced list): a book that takes place over a character's lifetime

American War by Omar El Akkad

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


talk about a deep, slightly uncomfortable topic that leads to a book that had me engrossed and wanting more.

2074... the ice caps have melted, resulting in large portions of the United States no longer existing. The Mississippi Delta is now the Mississippi Sea. The Capital of the United States has moved from the now underwater Washington DC to Columbus, Ohio. A ban on fossil fuels has lead to the Second American Civil War because the Southern States, who relied on the industry for the economy once again broke from the north and formed the Free Southern States. The entire State of South Carolina is behind a wall to keep a plague virus that was unleashed there early in the war contained.

This is the world that Sara T. Chestnut (known to all as Sarat) lived.

This book is told by her nephew Benjamin years after the events happen. How, when she was 6, Sarat's family evacuated their small home in Louisiana to a refugee camp, where she lived for 7 years. How she and her siblings survived a massacre there and she went to work for a rebel faction, how she lived in a military prison for years as a prisoner of war, and how, after being freed, she worked to end it all.

I found the book very difficult, because I can see how it could so easily happen. I am glad I read the book, though I think I can say with certainty that I do not think I need to ever read it again.



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