War of the Encyclopaedists

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Description

A hilarious and heartbreaking coming-of-age tale - big, bold, American fiction about love, friendship and the Iraq War Mickey Montauk and Halifax Corderoy are the Encyclopaedists. Held together by- a common sense of humour, Seattle, a handful of wild nights, a nonsensical shared Wikipedia page. Pushed apart by- Boston versus Baghdad, the Iraq War, a shared girl. Freshly graduated from high school, these two friends are about to be thrust into new lives. Montauk's National Guard unit are deploying abroad; Corderoy must take up his place at college and decide what to do about Mani, his suddenly-homeless not-quite-girlfriend. Worlds apart, still clinging to pieces of their old selves, the year to come will force them both to question what adulthood, friendship and happiness really look like - and will leave them both transformed.

Reviews

A captivating coming-of-age novel that is, by turns, funny and sad and elegiac - a novel that leaves us with revealing snapshots of America, and telling portraits of a couple of millennials trying to grope their way toward adulthood Michiko Kakutani, New York Times One of the most revealing novels yet about the millennial generation... this might be their defining novel Esquire Rather brilliant. It's like Franzen crossed with David Abrams... shrewd, funny and heartfelt Independent As bizarre, hilarious and devastating as the past decade ... Simultaneously a coming-of-age story, a war story, and a story of the disaffected millennial generation -- Phil Klay, author of Redeployment Pacy, funny, sometimes heartbreaking... this is a fantastic read Vogue [A] smart, wise and wise-assed first novel. Seattle hipsterville to Baghdad, Cambridge theory nerds and Army grunts, this book has sweep and heart and humor. It captures coming-of-age during foreign wars and domestic malaise, and it does so with electrifying insight -- Mary Karr, author of 'The Liars' Club' Unfolds rapidly, humorously, and convincingly from page one Library Journal Smart and entertaining ... [a] likable, highly readable, double-bylined coming-of-age first novel Kirkus An epic for the 9/11 generation... Chronicles the churning uncertainties of new adults, when everything represents possibility or peril Booklist

Author Bio

Christopher Robinson Chris Robinson, a Boston University and Hunter College MFA graduate, is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a Yale Younger Poets Prize finalist. His writing has appeared in the Kenyon Review, McSweeney's and elsewhere. Gavin Kovite Gavin Kovite was an infantry platoon leader in Baghdad from 2004-2005. He attended NYU Law and is now an Army prosecutor. His writing has appeared in literary magazines and is published in Fire and Forget.