Description:

Set in South-East Asia and the US, and spanning two decades, this is the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy who may or may not be engaged in psychological operations against the Viet Cong; it is also the story of Skip's uncle, the Colonel, who is CIA as well, and either misunderstood or mad; and then there's Eddie, Voss and Jimmy, who Skip runs into - or from - every now and again: he doesn't know whose side they're on, but he does know it's not necessarily his. Taking the reader on a surreal yet vivid journey, Tree of Smoke (the name given to a 'psy op' that might or might not be hypothetical and might or might not be officially sanctioned) is Denis Johnson's most gripping, visionary and ambitions work to date. Selected as top five fiction 2007 by the New York Times Book Review.