A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE ·From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes a brilliant and propulsive new novel about greed, power, and American complicity set in Haiti
"An engrossing, psychologically complex and politically astute novel." —The New York Times
Haiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos–and others are just looking to make it through another day.
Desperate for money—and survival—Matt teams up with his best friend and business partner Alix Variel, the adventurous only son of a socially prominent Haitian family. They set their sights on legendary shipwrecks that have been rumored to contain priceless treasures off a remote section of Haiti’s southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidents—one that involves Misha, Alix’s erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey O’Donnell, who finds herself doing clandestine work on an assignment that proves to be more difficult and dubious than she could have possibly imagined.
Devil Makes Three’s depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant. This new novel is sure to cement Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the twenty-first century’s boldest and most perceptive writers.
Genre: Literary Fiction
"An engrossing, psychologically complex and politically astute novel." —The New York Times
Haiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos–and others are just looking to make it through another day.
Desperate for money—and survival—Matt teams up with his best friend and business partner Alix Variel, the adventurous only son of a socially prominent Haitian family. They set their sights on legendary shipwrecks that have been rumored to contain priceless treasures off a remote section of Haiti’s southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidents—one that involves Misha, Alix’s erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey O’Donnell, who finds herself doing clandestine work on an assignment that proves to be more difficult and dubious than she could have possibly imagined.
Devil Makes Three’s depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant. This new novel is sure to cement Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the twenty-first century’s boldest and most perceptive writers.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Devil Makes Three is a fast and riveting read, a gripping thriller braided with a couple of credible love stories. This novel will pin your ears back with some of its hard-won truths." - Madison Smartt Bell
"Ben Fountain portrays with precision the native and foreign devils of Haiti in this extremely well-constructed novel. All must endure the intractability of this complex country, an intractability - that sometimes yields in proportion to one's willingness to risk everything." - Yanick Lahens
"Ben Fountain's powerfully written novel is many things at once-a spy thriller, a family saga, a love story, a treasure hunt, and a tale of brutal political repression, all set in the charged atmosphere of early 1990s Haiti. By succeeding at all of these, Devil Makes Three reminds us not only of the ways an ambitious, fully engaged novel can further our understanding of the world, but also of how pleasurable and satisfying reading such a novel can be." - Imbolo Mbue
"Devil Makes Three brings the relentless intimacy of great literature to the quest to understand Haiti. In this sense, the novel is both an act of wild faith and an act of mad love and, finally, a triumph." - Bob Shacochis
"Woven artfully into the fabric of Ben Fountain's literary thriller Devil Makes Three is a scathing indictment - Reflective and prescient, stunning in its narrative complexity and nuanced characterization, the novel is at once timely and timeless, working double duty as a reminder of the sins of America's past and a warning of those to come." - John Vercher
"Devil Makes Three is the sort of expansive, heartbreaking, thrilling novel I didn't realize I was missing until it grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. Writing at the peak of his considerable powers, Ben Fountain makes a harrowing period in Haiti's recent history come wonderfully and tragically alive. This morally complex novel is why we read fiction." - Jess Walter
"Ben Fountain portrays with precision the native and foreign devils of Haiti in this extremely well-constructed novel. All must endure the intractability of this complex country, an intractability - that sometimes yields in proportion to one's willingness to risk everything." - Yanick Lahens
"Ben Fountain's powerfully written novel is many things at once-a spy thriller, a family saga, a love story, a treasure hunt, and a tale of brutal political repression, all set in the charged atmosphere of early 1990s Haiti. By succeeding at all of these, Devil Makes Three reminds us not only of the ways an ambitious, fully engaged novel can further our understanding of the world, but also of how pleasurable and satisfying reading such a novel can be." - Imbolo Mbue
"Devil Makes Three brings the relentless intimacy of great literature to the quest to understand Haiti. In this sense, the novel is both an act of wild faith and an act of mad love and, finally, a triumph." - Bob Shacochis
"Woven artfully into the fabric of Ben Fountain's literary thriller Devil Makes Three is a scathing indictment - Reflective and prescient, stunning in its narrative complexity and nuanced characterization, the novel is at once timely and timeless, working double duty as a reminder of the sins of America's past and a warning of those to come." - John Vercher
"Devil Makes Three is the sort of expansive, heartbreaking, thrilling novel I didn't realize I was missing until it grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. Writing at the peak of his considerable powers, Ben Fountain makes a harrowing period in Haiti's recent history come wonderfully and tragically alive. This morally complex novel is why we read fiction." - Jess Walter
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Ben Fountain's Devil Makes Three