Stephen Dau

The Book of Jonas is an elegantly written book that stimulates thought and emotion while challenging conventional viewpoints on war and religion. While I didn't necessarily agree with the actions or beliefs of the main characters, I was fascinated and empathetic. The sparse prose and short chapters meant no word was wasted and the story moved quickly between past and present and various points of view. I was profoundly moved by this engrossing book that packed a powerful punch in nearly show more poetic fashion. show less

Wonderfully complex, and emotionally disturbing, The Book of Jonas tells the story of a young Middle Eastern boy, the exact country in never explicitly named, badly injured and orphaned by a military action in his village who is rescued by an American soldier. The story is not kind as it focuses on Jonas coming to grips with a terrible secret he is harboring, from both himself and others, after he is relocated to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. While a work of fiction, the plot is show more entirely believable as are the characters’ actions, the dialog and the characters themselves.

Most war novels focus on heroism or the action of combat. Those damaged by combat are largely ignored. I would deliberately choose “damaged” to describe Jonas as he is both physically injured and emotionally scarred, far more emotionally, which is not as readily apparent, than physically. The Book of Jonas goes further, demonstrating the toll war takes on everyone involved; we are graphically shown there are no heroes, only damaged survivors. Stephen Dau reminds us that this damage has a ripple effect that reaches out to the families of those involved and they too are damaged emotionally by what happened.

In time, I think this work will stand alongside Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse 5 as antihero / anti-glorified war testaments. I highly suggest this book to any book discussion groups as there is ample material here for questions and debate. This is not for the person looking for war stories with lots of action sequences. It is for the reader of emotionally charged stories, of parables for our time that must be told. The more I think about this book and talk it over with others, the more I feel The Book of Jonas deserves an unqualified five stars. The emotional impact is hard, the writing style very fluid and the characters very true to life. show less

The Book of Jonas is about the cost of war, and the fact that it is shared by the soldiers who must fight as well as the children who must die. Jonas (his American name) is a Muslim teenager caught in an American raid against his village. His father has prepared him for trouble by showing him how to find a cave in the mountains, instructing him that if anything were to happen, he must go there immediately and wait for family members to find him. Only his family is dead. Jonas is rescued from show more the cave by a young American soldier, Chris, suffering his own wounds from the attack.

Jonas is put in the hands of an American relief organization, and is sent to America to be adopted by a Christian family. He struggles to adapt, but falls victim to uncontrollable anger that finally forces him into therapy. He also finds Rose, Chris's mother, who is desperate to find out how her son died. As Jonas spirals downward emotionally, his memories of Chris and the days they shared in the cave return with surprising effect.

This is a very moving anti-war story with a powerful ending, simply written, but also unexpected. show less

This is a debut novel about a Muslim boy (in a never named foreign country), orphaned by an American military operation gone terribly wrong, and his new life in America thanks to an international relief organization. It is the story of Younis (who Americanized himself to Jonas during the air flight over), and how he is trying to adjust to life in Pittsburgh and his very Christian foster family. This is easier said than done, of course, and Dau takes us through Jonas' turmoils, the real time show more hostility around him as well as the inner nightmare of how and why he survived when his family did not. Told in the short vignettes, we follow Jonas into young adulthood, steadily being fed faint details of his inner demons, many centering around the American soldier who saved him but then went missing in action. Piece by piece, the picture becomes heartbreakingly clear. The costs of war are not just in dollars, and they aren't always paid completely on the battlefield. This is a stunningly nuanced novel, and a gem of a debut. show less