Tree of Smoke
Published on 12. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
624 pages
978-1-0350-9131-7 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Tree of Smoke - the name given to a 'psyop' that may or may not be hypothetical and may or may not be officially sanctioned - is Denis Johnson's most gripping, visionary and ambitious work.
Set across south-east Asia and the United States, and spanning two decades, Tree of Smoke tells the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy who may or may not be engaged in psychological operations against the Viet Cong. Skating across Vietnam, the Philippines, and the United States, Johnson takes the reader on a surreal, vivid journey, dipping in and out of characters's lives to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of the human condition.
Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.
Set across south-east Asia and the United States, and spanning two decades, Tree of Smoke tells the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy who may or may not be engaged in psychological operations against the Viet Cong. Skating across Vietnam, the Philippines, and the United States, Johnson takes the reader on a surreal, vivid journey, dipping in and out of characters's lives to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of the human condition.
Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.
Reviews / Votes
An artist of strange diligence . . . Tree of Smoke is as excessive and messy as Moby Dick . . . It's a big, dirty, unmade bed of a book and, once you settle in you're in no hurry to get out. -- Geoff Dyer * Guardian * Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride * New York Times * The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's -- Jonathan Franzen It will . . . get inside your head like the war it is describing - mystifying, horrifying, mesmerizing. [Johnson] has written a book that by the end wraps around you as tightly as a snake * The Washington Post * An epic of drenched sensuality and absurdly chewable dialogue, as though Don DeLillo and Joseph Heller had collaborated on a Vietnam War novel -- Steven Poole, Books of the Year * New Statesman * A Catch-22 for our times -- Alan Warner, Books of the Year * The Observer *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 39 mm
Weight
418 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0350-9131-7 (9781035091317)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2016
Picador
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Denis Johnson was the author of several novels, including Already Dead, Resuscitation of a Hanged Man, Fiskadoro, The Stars at Noon, Angels and The Name of the World, plus a collection of short stories, Jesus' Son, and four volumes of poetry. He died in Sea Ranch, CA in 2017 at the age of sixty-seven.