First published 2014
Michael M. Hastings sits at his desk at The Magazine in 2002, twenty-two years old and desperate to turn his internship into a real job. He's the only person in the office who bothers reading his colleagues' work, and he knows exactly which editors to impress. International editor Nishant Patel and managing editor Sanders Berman are locked in a bitter contest for the top spot, spending their time grandstanding on cable television while reporter A. E. Peoria does the actual journalism. Peoria has just returned from Chad, frustrated that his editors made him cover mobile phone outsourcing instead of genocide. When America invades Iraq, the newsroom explodes into chaos. Hastings watches the political maneuvering intensify as his colleagues chase career advancement over truth. He faces an impossible choice between the powerful men who control his future and his friend in the field who refuses to compromise his reporting. This decision will force Hastings to confront what journalism really means and what he's willing to sacrifice for success.
Genres: american-fiction, 21st-century, journalism
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: career-vs-truth, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chad, Iraq
Period: 2002
352 pages · Hardcover · Blue Rider Press
Content warnings: war