02/06/2017
The horrors of modern war in Iraq in 2003 are vividly described in this debut novel by Iraq War veteran Van Reet, focusing on the deadly connections between a female American soldier, an American tank crewman, and a fervent jihadist insurgent. At an obscure roadblock near Baghdad, Army Specialist Cassandra is a gunner on a Humvee, idealistic and proud of her service. Private Sleed, the tank crewman, is naïve and easily manipulated. And Abu Al-Hool loses a leadership struggle with Dr. Walid, an Islamist extremist. Sleed and his crew have abandoned their posts to loot a palace when Walid and Al-Hool’s fighters attack the American roadblock, and Cassandra is wounded and captured by the jihadists, beginning 55 days of torture, abuse, and exploitation for propaganda. Sleed feels guilty that their dereliction of duty contributed to Cassandra’s capture. While the Americans search for Cassandra, Al-Hool suspects Walid will have him killed, so he makes desperate plans to avoid assassination and to seek his revenge. Cassandra’s POW captivity is horrific; Dr. Walid’s final propaganda use for her is calmly diabolical and will have surprising and devastating effect. Van Reet’s unsettling tale is an authentic portrayal of combat with its chaos, fear, and the finality of death. It is also a sobering commentary on war’s brutality and the burning intensity of Iraq’s jihadist insurgency. (Apr.)
A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Book of 2017
A Guardian Best Book of the Year
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
An Indie Next Pick
"Original, deftly plotted and incisively intelligent.... Van Reet occupies these sparring perspectives with impressive balance and dispassion, avoiding the sense of victimhood that often saturates fiction about American soldiers in Iraq. Though the novel offers no pat resolutions, a strange and surprising connection emerges between captive and captors."
—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
"A wondrously nuanced book.... There is something deeply human here--a story concerned first and foremost with the souls of those who find themselves protagonists in history's darkest chapters."
—Omar El Akkad, author of American War
"A book of inescapable vows and unintended consequences.... SPOILS moves into fresh territory.... The sensory depth and description of place is perfect throughout.... This is a raw study in the ruin of men. It's unapologetic and confessional, showing the flaws in humanity just below the skin.... Every character fears failure, isolation and powerlessness, the American occupation creating a kind of universal captivity. Van Reet shows that no one wins a war like this, and, at some point, everyone fighting in it knows."
—Washington Post
"This vivid debut from a former soldier, about the capture of marines from an Islamist militia, captures the valor, horror and absurdity of conflict.... Van Reet's assured debut novel begins with one of the best opening chapters I've read for ages.... The strengths of this excellent book are all on show in these tight 15 pages: the vivid observation, the nuance of its character, the deep familiarity with the processes of waging war.... Spoils feels not only rewarding, but necessary."
—Guardian
"Brian Van Reet's beautiful, intense, and at times disturbing novel Spoils traces the motivations and desires of combatants on both sides of the Iraq War, showing us what happens when increasing violence and chaos start to warp the choices they're able to make."—Phil Klay, author of Redeployment
"Moving immediately into the pantheon of first-rate war novels, Spoils reads like a nightmare within a tragedy, a story that is both touchingly classic and brutally modern. This is a definitive record of the war that marked the end of the American Empire. One of the best novels of our time in the Middle East."—Philipp Meyer, author of The Son and American Rust
"With Spoils Brian Van Reet has given readers an intensely moving novel. That it is also a nearly comprehensive examination of our modern wars is a remarkable demonstration of both the power and relevance of fiction."—Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds
"I read this with awe. Spoils is a harrowing and incredibly powerful debut which shows war in all its complexity and viciousness and which attempts to humanize it through extraordinary and conflicted characters. The female soldier Cassandra Wigheard is superbly drawn and her relationship with the young Jihadist will stay with me for a long time."
—Kate Atkinson, bestselling author of A God in Ruins
"The brilliance of Brian Van Reet's Spoils lies not only in the sheer forward-motion velocity of its plotting, but in the psychological terrain it explores: what a generation of young women and men went looking for in Iraq, what they found, and why that discovery matters so profoundly for the rest of us."
—Anthony Giardina, author of Norumbega Park
"Vivid and fierce, Spoils is an eloquent exploration of humanity. Depicting a world with no obvious villains or heroes, this novel is as important as it is timely. By exploring the nuances of motivation, loyalty, and sacrifice, Van Reet exposes the connections that bind us across even the greatest divides."
—Virginia Reeves, author of Work Like Any Other
"Clear, authentic and beautifully written, Spoils is a book about war for people who don't like books about war. Van Reet gives us a thriller that is not a thriller, but a grave and fierce description of the moral battlefield behind the headlines from Iraq."
—Anne Enright, author of The Green Road and The Gathering
"A superb debut."
—The Guardian
"Van Reet's lean prose accommodates a laconic style suggesting military reports and detail-rich context fed by a keen eye and memory. He embeds the reader with the unwashed troops in a cramped Humvee, in a dark cell where only screams penetrate, and in the mind of a Muslim fighters with two decades of campaigning, a dead son, lost wife, scant wins, and more doubts than faith can ease. A fine piece of writing that should stand in the front ranks of recent war novels."—Kirkus (starred review)
"In straightforward, often powerful prose, Van Reet captures the Iraq War as Tim O'Brien did Vietnam.... Cassandra's captivity is the focus of much of the novel, and Van Reet captures her experience vividly and terrifyingly. Seeing the conflict through a woman's eyes is a compelling approach and deserves attention."—Booklist
"Van Reet's unsettling tale is an authentic portrayal of combat with its chaos, fear, and finality of death. It is also a sobering commentary on war's brutality and the burning intensity of Iraq's jihadist insurgency."—Publishers Weekly
"Spoils is not just the well-described ambiance of the sand, heat, rains and stench of war, with its course soldier talk and extravagant weaponry--it's also a damn fine story.... In every war, heroism is not just for those who win medals. Spoils is the story of those who rise to small acts of valor while no one is looking."
—Shelf Awareness
"In his debut novel, Brian Van Reet sets his characters on a collision course amidst the chaos of the early stages of the Iraq War.... As the story unfolds, flesh and convictions are pitted against each other, drawing blood with every inch surrendered.... At its core, Spoils is a narrative of intertwining struggles, with each character bound and trapped by the Iraq War in one way or another. The storytelling is both intense and surreal.... In time, Van Reet's Spoils may become a classic of the Iraq War."
—Foreign Policy
"Stunning.... It has the ring of absolute authenticity, and Van Reet clearly articulates the violent mechanics of modern warfare. But this is, above all, a human story, a psychological drama between ideologically opposed captor and captive played out in the fog of war. A powerful and compelling narrative."—Mail on Sunday
"With echoes of hit TV shows and movies from Homeland to Hurt Locker, Van Reet's debut works equally well as a geopolitical action-thriller and a literary novel.... But it also carries a philosophical heft and emotional wallop.... Spoils is beautifully written, too: Van Reet has a way of capturing the essential nature of things in just a few words, expressive but tightly wound."—Independent
"Electrifying.... Spoils is a timely novel with striking relevance to the current war in Syria, increasingly shaped and sustained by foreign interests and intervention.... Van Reet paints a harrowing picture of the dangers of propaganda and the true cost of "collateral damage". At a time when political rhetoric is exacerbating divisions worldwide, this is a novel with an urgent message."—Economist
★ 04/15/2017
In an article for the New York Times, Van Reet, a veteran of the First Calvary Division in Baghdad and recipient of a James Michener Fellowship, criticized the publishing phenomenon of the "War on Terror Kill Memoir," exemplified by American Sniper and No Easy Day. Rather than complicate the intricacies of death and combat, argues Van Reet, these books directly satisfy the American public's morbid curiosity with body counts. Here, in his debut novel, Van Reet does something different, re-creating 2003 Baghdad and illuminating the confusion, patriotism, and regret experienced on both side of the battle lines. The triadic story unfolds around Cassandra, an American soldier captured by members of the Mujahideen Army; Abu Al-Hool, one of Cassandra's captors; and Sleed, an American soldier searching for Cassandra. Focusing on the internal lives of each character, the author illuminates their individual quests for liberation—physically, spiritually, and ethically—amid the chaos of war. The narrative crescendos toward a bang-up ending involving all three protagonists, with the resolution a distressing commentary on what is gained and lost in the pursuit of victory. VERDICT Van Reet has penned an absorbing novel with an unflinching ruminations on war's ultimate sacrifice, reminiscent of Roy Scranton's War Porn. [See Prepub Alert, 10/10/16.]—Joshua Finnell, Los Alamos National Lab., NM
09/01/2017
First-time novelist Van Reet trains his dispassionate eye on three soldiers in post-9/11 Iraq: Cassandra, a 19-year-old marine specialist; Abu al-Hool, an aging Afghani mujahideen fighter challenged by a younger leader; and Sleed, an older marine who wears hardened cynicism like armor. Van Reet's credentials—he was an Echols Scholar who left academia to join the U.S. Army after September 11—lend authority to this unnerving tale. No detail is superfluous. Van Reet forces readers to confront a daily existence that brutalizes even the toughest characters. We stand alongside Cassandra, who outside a bunker overhears men gossiping about who among them might have raped a female soldier—someone Cassandra knew but was too afraid to support. We feel al-Hool's grief as he mentors a disciple who reminds him of his son, who was killed on a suicide mission 10 years earlier in Chechnya. We lie next to Sleed in the dirty sand as he's awoken, after a blast knocks him unconscious, by a stray dog licking his face as he marvels, "It'd been so long since [I]'d touched any living creature in a gentle way." The capture of Cassandra connects these three lives, resulting in more death. This war novel with a human heart is powerful stuff. VERDICT Strong language, violence, and death pervade this narrative; recommended for mature teens only.—Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY
A roadside firefight in the early days of the Iraq War sets the stage for a harrowing audiobook that explores both sides of the conflict. Each main character has his or her own narrator, allowing listeners to more easily follow the story’s shifts in time. Nicol Zanzarella portrays Cassandra Wigheard, whose Humvee is attacked in the opening chapter. Restrained and thoughtful, Zanzarella depicts Cassandra as a proud soldier amid the foibles of war. Andrew Eiden portrays Private Sleed with a gung-ho delivery that plays with stereotypes of U.S. soldiers before transcending them. Armando Duran exudes authority and world-weariness as Abu Al-Hool, a lifelong jihadist who is uneasy with terrorist extremism. Circumstances of war weave these narrative threads into an experience that listeners will not soon forget. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
★ 2017-02-02
In a strong debut, an Iraq War veteran tells the before and after for both sides of a brief firefight in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Army soldiers Cassandra, Crump, and McGinnis and their Humvee are part of a group guarding a roundabout outside Baghdad in 2003. During a mujahedeen mortar and ground assault, the three are last seen taking shelter in an irrigation canal when the story shifts back two years. The mujahedeen are recruiting in Afghanistan and mulling their next campaign when 9/11 occurs and they embark on the trajectory that will end at that roundabout. The narrative hopscotch continues in pre-raid time jumps tracking the Humvee soldiers and the Muslim fighters, while Van Reet, who served with a tank crew in Iraq, adds a third group, a trio of tank crewmen whose hunt for Saddam souvenirs will take them off post when the call comes to head for the embattled roundabout. The author gives each of the three groups a distinctive voice, revealing the hearts and minds on both sides of the war and how training, stupidity, and fear all come into play. Cassandra, Crump, and McGinnis resurface in the main timeline as POWs in separate rooms of a makeshift prison. It's soon clear that the insurgent leader will use any method to make them serve his propaganda videos, leaving 100 grimly tense pages before the end. Van Reet's lean prose accommodates a laconic style suggesting military reports and detail-rich context fed by a keen eye and memory. He embeds the reader with the unwashed troops in a cramped Humvee, in a dark cell where only screams penetrate, and in the mind of a Muslim fighter with two decades of campaigning, a dead son, a lost wife, scant wins, and more doubts than faith can ease. A fine piece of writing that should stand in the front ranks of recent war novels.
