Vulture - Hardcover

by Phoebe Greenwood (Author)

NPR BEST BOOK OF 2025

A darkly funny, heart-wrenching satire that tears through the guts of the war news industry.

Catch-22 on speed and set in the Middle East, Vulture is a fast-paced satire of the war news industry and a tragi-comic coming-of-age novel.

In November 2012, Sara Byrne, an ambitious young journalist, is sent to Gaza to cover a war from The Beach. At the four-star hotel, staff work tirelessly to provide safety, comfort and generator-powered internet for the world's media, even as their own homes and families are under threat.

Sara is determined to use this war to launch her stalling career and win back her lover. So, when her fixer Nasser refuses to set up the dangerous story she thinks will make her name, she turns instead to Fadi, the youngest member of a powerful militant family. Driven by the demons of a damaging, entitled, childhood, Sara will stop at nothing to prove herself, even if it brings disaster upon those around her.

Greenwood's debut novel draws readers into the dark heart of western media, and with audacity and humour, questions its complicity in the tragedies that feed it.

"So sharp and funny... A superb novel on reporting and war."
--Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment