Review

Phil Klay's new novel, Missionaries, asks whether there's such a thing as a 'good war'

By T.j. Collins
May 29 2021 - 12:00am
Soldiers in Bogota, Colombia. Picture: Shutterstock
Soldiers in Bogota, Colombia. Picture: Shutterstock
  • Missionaries, by Phil Klay. Canongate, $29.99.

In 2014, Phil Klay, a veteran of the Iraq War, published Redeployment, a collection of short stories set in Afghanistan and Iraq. The collection is notable for its kaleidoscopic tonal range, with Klay inhabiting more than a dozen different voices - artilleryman, chaplain, engineer - to paint two altogether more comprehensive portraits of the wars that have defined the post-9/11 era than any non-fiction accounts published to date have managed to do.

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