Devil Makes Three: A Novel

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 MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, ABC News, Yahoo! Finance, Seattle Times, Lit Hub, The Chicago Tribune, and more!!! "[A] big, deeply humane political thriller that proves the flame of Graham Greene and John le Carré is still burning." —The Washington Post 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... LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE · 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. "Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been toppled in a violent coup d'état, bringing to power a brutal military dictatorship. With turmoil in the streets and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country's most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in chaos--and others are just looking to make it through another day. American expat Matt Amaker, forced out of his beachfront scuba shop by a drug-smuggling operation, turns to hunting colonial Spanish treasure off a remote section of Haiti's southern coast. Misha Variel, a Haitian-American scholar, returns to Haiti to care for her aging parents, and soon stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S.-government humanitarian aid office. Rookie CIA case officer Audrey O'Donnell finds herself managing a grabbag of intelligence assets in an assignment more difficult and more dubious than she could have imagined. All are embroiled in a game of deceit that culminates in a vicious, zero-sum scramble for survival. Devil Makes Three's depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and, most of all, a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant."-- Provided by publisher