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 ambitious work to date. Set in south-east Asia and the US, and spanning two decades, it ostensibly tells the story of Skip Sands, a CIA spy who may or may not be engaged in psychological operations against the Viet Cong -- but also takes the reader on a surreal yet vivid journey, dipping in and out of characters’ lives to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of the human condition.

‘A Catch-22 for our times’ Alan Warner, Books of the Year, Observer

'The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humour like Denis Johnson's' Jonathan Franzen

‘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

Denis Johnson has delivered his masterpiece. --Chris Offutt The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's. --Jonathan Franzen
Prose of amazing power and stylishness. --Philip Roth Once Johnson gets his hooks into you--it takes about two sentences--it's . . . pretty much impossible to stop reading. --David Gates, The New York Times Book Review An amazingly talented writer . . . We can hear Twain in his biting irony, Whitman in his erotic excess, not a little of Dashiell Hammett too in the hard sentences he throws back at his gouged, wounded world. --Vince Passaro, Newsday
I can't be sure that there's been a better American novel published in the past ten years. It is a masterpiece. -- The Miami Herald
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 Book World
Damn impressive, a layered, rich, sweaty accomplishment of massive proportions. -- Entertainment Weekly
Tree of Smoke is a Vietnam war novel almost without peer, in which 'the abyss is alive.' Johnson . . . has written the best work of his career, an existential tour de force. -- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Good morning and please listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book. --The New York Times Book Review (cover review)
Johnson's power of empathy is a beam that radiates and cannot be modulated. It's helplessly total. . . . Johnson has written his War and Peace, -- Harper's Magazine
Gorgeous prose . . . a heartbreaking portrait of war. -- Outside
Tree of Smoke is a brilliant pillar of fire. . . . Haunting, tragic, and humane. -- Men's Vogue
Opens a window onto a world of mystery, war, and intrigue whose importance in the (usually) unwritten history of our republic can't be denied. -- Chicago Tribune
An epic, wrenching new novel . . . delivers a beautifully layered, insightful, and visceral montage of stories. -- The Seattle Times
Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book. --The New York Times Book Review
The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's. --Jonathan Franzen I can't be sure that there's been a better American novel published in the past ten years. It is a masterpiece. -- The Miami Herald
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 Book World
Tree of Smoke is a masterpiece of language and depth. -- San Francisco Chronicle
Johnson has captured the zeitgeist of American experience as surely as Twain, Hemingway, or Ellison. -- New York Post
Opens a window onto a world of mystery, war, and intrigue whose importance in the (usually) unwritten history of our republic can't be denied. -- Chicago Tribune Johnson has written his War and Peace, -- Harper's Magazine

Denis Johnson is the author of several novels, including Already Dead (published by Picador), 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 lives in northern Idaho.