Eleven linked short stories following a nameless, druggy narrator through the American Midwest — car crashes, hospitals, petty crime, heroin, grace and violence in equal measure. Johnson's collection is one of the most acclaimed works of short fiction in American literature.
Vietnam, 1963 to 1983. Skip Sands is a CIA officer working for his uncle, a legendary colonel running a psychological operations program called Tree of Smoke. Around him: two brothers from Arizona, a Canadian missionary, a double agent. Johnson's National Book Award winner is the major American novel about the Vietnam War.