'Expansive, explosive and epic' Marlon James
'A courageous book' New York Times Book Review

A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

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.

About the Author

Phil Klay is a veteran of the US Marine Corps. He served in Iraq during the surge and subsequently received an MFA from Hunter College. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker and Granta. He is co-host of the Manifesto! podcast and is the author of Redeployment, which was a New York Times bestseller and won the National Book Award for Fiction, the John Leonard Award and the Warwick Prize. Missionaries is his first novel.

@PhilKlay | philklay.com

Reviews
[A] sweeping, searing, wrenching and wise addition to the great literature of America's postwar imperialism * * Guardian, Book of the Day * *
If Redeployment was about what happened when we ship wars abroad, then Missionaries is what happens when war comes roaring right back. Expansive, explosive, and epic -- MARLON JAMES
Wrenching and insightful * * New Yorker * *
Missionaries has a sweep and incisiveness to it I had almost forgotten novels were capable of. I haven't been so gripped by a book in years. It is immensely smart and far-seeing, and utterly unsparing. Extraordinary -- GARTH GREENWELL
By means of a well-oiled plot, complex characters and adrenaline-fuelled action, Klay opens our eyes to the globalised nature of modern conflict * * The Times * *
Missionaries is a courageous book: it doesn't shy away, as so much fiction does, from the real world . . . Is there such a thing as a "good war", like the one Mason seeks? Missionaries is skeptical at best; it does believe, however, in fiction's ability to illuminate these dark places. And so the novel goes on, undeterred, exploring and revealing whole human worlds that would remain inaccessible without it -- Juan Gabriel Vasquez * * New York Times Book Review * *
This impressive debut shines a light on the globalisation of violence . . . Klay, himself a former US marine, has crafted a gripping novel that doubles as a prodigiously well-researched attack on the horrors of war and on America's covert counter-terrorism tactics. Stunning * * Mail on Sunday * *
Missionaries is an urgent, detailed, compassionate and quietly furious novel about America and her Forever Wars. Intensely readable, exciting, funny and heartbreaking - it will change you -- A.L. KENNEDY
Powerfully written . . . A page-turning saga of good guys taking out bad guys, bad guys being bad, and bad guys turned good guys struggling to do the right thing * * Independent * *
Missionaries shook me to my core. Klay takes the reader into the heart of Colombian darkness; the abuses of power, the forgotten lives of girls and women and how quickly human dignity - and conscience - get eroded in extreme times. This is audacious, heartbreaking, epic fiction. It touched me greatly -- MARY COSTELLO



Book Information
ISBN 9781838852351
Author Phil Klay
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 277g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 25mm