WINNER OF THE 2024 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE тАв A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE
тАв WASHINGTON POST BEST FICTION OF 2023 тАв From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy LynnтАЩs 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." тАФThe New York Times
Haiti, 1991. When a violent coup dтАЩ├йtat 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 countryтАЩs most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaosтАУand others are just looking to make it through another day.
Desperate for moneyтАФand survivalтАФMatt 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 HaitiтАЩs southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidentsтАФone that involves Misha, AlixтАЩs erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey OтАЩDonnell, 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 ThreeтАЩs 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 FountainтАЩs reputation as one of the twenty-first centuryтАЩs boldest and most perceptive writers.