Into the sun : or the school /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Béchard, Deni Ellis, 1974- author.
Edition:First edition.
Imprint:Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2016.
©2016
Description:452 pages ; 21 cm
Language:English
Subject:FICTION -- Literary.
FICTION -- War & Military.
Kabul (Afghanistan) -- Fiction.
Afghanistan -- Kabul.
Fiction.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10888316
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781571311146
1571311149
Summary:"Kabul: Ten years after 9/11. Dismembered by decades of war and jerry-rigged by foreign aid, the city is flooded by journalists, relief workers, and messianic idealists living cheek by jowl in sterile compounds. They throw parties, sell their stories before they happen, trying to save others and redeem themselves. Outsiders addicted to the compulsive thrill of self-invention in a dangerously unstable country, they believe they are at the very frontier of history. When a car explodes in a crowded city street, journalist Michiko Oketani is shocked to discover that its passengers were acquaintances-a tawdry love triangle-from expat circles. Alexandra was a human rights lawyer for imprisoned Afghan women; Justin, a born-again Christian from Louisiana, taught at a local school; and Clay, an inscrutable ex-soldier, worked for a private contractor. The car's driver, Idris, one of Justin's most promising pupils, is missing. Drawn to the secret fabrications of these strangers, and increasingly convinced the events that led to the fatal explosion weren't random, Michiko follows a paper trail that leads beyond Kabul to Louisiana, Maine, Quebec, and Dubai. As the investigation deepens, Michiko's research steadily uncovers old grudges and secret traumas, private desires that have public consequences. The victims' fictions of omission make each complicit in his or her own death. In a city of contesting accounts, the American state's manipulation of the war narrative-writ large on an international stage-is undercut by the innumerable, privately manipulated narratives running in and through each individual life. Though Afghanistan is occupied territory, Kabul belongs to the people that live there: to the hungry, determined, and resourceful locals who are just as willing as their occupiers to reinvent themselves to survive. In this monumental novel, prize-winning author Deni Ellis Bechard draws an unsentimental, portrait of those who flock to warzones. In the author's knowledgeable hands, Kabul-a city that has long haunted the American psyche-is viscerally brought to life as a maze of potholed streets, gritty air, frigid concrete, and continuous violence. Despite the hostility of its setting, Into the Sun hunts for the connections that underlie the apparent tragic randomness of restless lives with a belief in the human need for stories, no matter how flawed"--
Other form:Online version: Béchard, Deni Y. (Deni Yvan), 1974- author. Into the sun. First edition. Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2016 9781571319241
Description
Summary:

When a car explodes in a crowded part of Kabul ten years after 9/11, a Japanese-American journalist is shocked to discover that the passengers were acquaintances--three fellow ex-pats who had formed an unlikely love triangle.

Alexandra was a human rights lawyer for imprisoned Afghan women. Justin was a born-again Christian who taught at a local school. Clay was an ex-soldier who worked as a private contractor. The car's driver, Idris, was one of Justin's most promising pupils--and he is missing.

Drawn to the secrets of these strangers, and increasingly convinced the events that led to the fatal explosion weren't random, the journalist follows a trail that leads from Kabul to Louisiana, Maine, Québec, and Dubai. In the process, the tortured narratives of these individuals become inseparable from the larger story of America's imperial misadventures.

In this monumental novel, Deni Ellis Béchard draws an unsentimental portrait of those who flock to warzones, indelibly capturing these journalists, mercenaries, idealists, and aid workers. More importantly, Béchard vividly brings to life the city of Kabul itself, along with the people who live there: the hungry, determined, and resourceful locals who are just as willing as their occupiers to reinvent themselves to survive.

Physical Description:452 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN:9781571311146
1571311149