Tree of Smoke

By Denis Johnson

Categories: Literature & Fiction

Tree of Smoke is a 2007 novel by Denis Johnson, author of Jesus' Son. It won the 2007 National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The novel spans 1963 to 1983, following William "Skip" Sands, a young CIA operative in the Philippines and Vietnam who works for his uncle, a legendary colonel running a psychological operation called Tree of Smoke. Other storylines follow brothers who enlist and a Canadian aid worker, all disillusioned by the war.

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• Stephen King: “Think you don’t need another long novel about Vietnam? Tired of novels that try to explain the ’60s? Yeah, gimme five.”