Missionaries

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Pub Date 29 Oct 2020 | Archive Date 29 Oct 2020

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Description

An astonishing novel about the moral cost of war, from the author of the National Book Award-winning Redeployment


Neither Mason, a US Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has emerged from America’s long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unscathed. Yet, for them, war still exerts a terrible draw – the noble calling, the camaraderie, the life-and-death stakes. Where else in the world can such a person go?

All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with the local government to stamp out a vicious civil war and keep the predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it. 


Missionaries is an astonishment, a novel of extraordinary suspense whose central, unsparing drama is infused by a geopolitical sophistication and a rare wisdom about the human heart.

An astonishing novel about the moral cost of war, from the author of the National Book Award-winning Redeployment


Neither Mason, a US Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has...


Advance Praise

Praise for Redeployment:


'Redeployment is a quick but powerful and, for me, painful set of stories about the experience of ordinary soldiers in Iraq'
BARACK OBAMA

'Searing . . . Gives the civilian reader a visceral feeling for what it is like to be a soldier in a combat zone, and what it is like to return home, still reeling from the dislocations of war. Gritty, unsparing and fiercely observed'
New York Times

'Incendiary stories of war . . . Redeployment is the real thing – a vivid and vital battery of war stories that does not rely solely on its subject matter for impact (although, make no mistake, the subject certainly has impact) . . . A must-read'
Guardian

'One of the great story collections of recent times'
COLUM McCANN

'Achingly beautiful'
Financial Times

'After the first reading I immediately began the second . . . Truly haunting, and truly, indisputably, brilliant'
NIALL GRIFFITHS

'Will simultaneously break your heart and give you reasons to hope'
BEN FOUNTAIN

'Brilliant'
Sunday Telegraph

'Sharp, intelligent, compelling'
Irish Times

'Klay's short stories pull off something incredibly subtle'
Sunday Times

'Literary fiction from the global war on terror has only recently begun to give these soldiers a voice, and Redeployment is an important addition to the genre . . . Taut, sharply observed'
Financial Times

'Hilarious, biting and sad. It's the best thing written so far on what the war did to people's souls'
Scotsman

Praise for Redeployment:


'Redeployment is a quick but powerful and, for me, painful set of stories about the experience of ordinary soldiers in Iraq'
BARACK OBAMA

'Searing . . . Gives the civilian...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781838852313
PRICE £16.99 (GBP)

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Average rating from 4 members


Featured Reviews

Highly intelligent in its geo-political analysis and knowledgeable about the realities of modern combat, this is nevertheless quite baggy as a novel. Moving between Iraq, Afghanistan and the drug wars in Colombia, it can be hard-hitting and horrific but also quite loose in the number of PoV characters. Overall, it offers interesting commentaries on the explosion of private contractors in the US military and on the systematic use of technology that is also part of capitalism's circulation of power.

This strikes me as a very adult book where others tackling similar topics may be emotional and soap-y (i.e. Columbiana), or boy's own adventures - this is neither. At the same time, it's quite hard to summarise in a pithy way and there were times where I really wasn't sure where it was going or how the various strands related to each other. Smart, sharp, perhaps a bit more diffuse than I'd have liked.

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