I think one of the things that's been lost in this incredibly polarized world we live in is the idea that it's possible to understand without taking somebody's side. My only hope is that you understand why she did it. I don't think you're supposed to have sympathy for her. On whether we're supposed to have sympathy for Sarat after her terrible acts The best journalism isn't necessarily good writing, it's just necessary, and this was a very different world, to be able to say things, and also to be able to bury subtext, and to say things without saying them. But there's nothing that doesn't have some kind of analog in the world.įiction's always been my first home, since I first started writing, and so in a sense, it freed me up to say things I couldn't say in a journalistic capacity - nor should I say in a journalistic capacity. I've spent the last ten years writing nonfiction, I've spent the last ten years writing journalism, and so it was very interesting for me to take that world and recast it as something fictional. There's not much in here that's fully un-anchored from something that happened in the real world. And the central arc of the book is essentially her life, and how her desire to know, her curiosity, is sort of used against her during this war.' 'At the start of the book she's six years old,' he says, 'and to me she's sort of this very curious, trusting, defiant young girl whose chief attribute is this kind of rebellion against unknowing. El Akkad says that of all the characters he created for the book, only one came to him fully-formed: Sarat Chestnut, the young girl at the center of the story. This dystopian world is the setting for a new novel, American War, by Omar El Akkad - who spent much of his career as a journalist with Canada's Globe and Mail covering real disasters and conflicts. A weakened America sees new empires in China and the Middle East meddling in its affairs - and Mexico has annexed most parts of the Southwest, from Texas to California. The southern states have broken away, looking to protect the coal mining industry. The President has banned the use of fossil fuels.

It's 2075, and America has been beset by flooding linked to climate change.

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