American War

Author: Omar El Akkad

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 9 April 2026 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Picador Collection' series.

Paperback | 352 pages
129 x 197 x 23 | 242g

Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary FictionShortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Book of the YearOmar El Akkad’s powerful debut novel imagines a dystopian future: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague and one family caught deep in the middle. For fans of Station Eleven.

'American War creates as haunting a post-apocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road' – New York Times2074. America’s future is Civil War. Sarat’s reality is survival. They took her father, they took her home, they told her lies . . .

She didn’t start this war, but she’ll end it.

In American War, we’re asked to consider what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons against itself.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.