Midnight, at the War

by Devi S. Laskar

Inspired by journalists Christiane Amanpour and Sylvia Poggioli, Midnight, at the War is a novel about a reporter chasing the biggest story of her career as she contends with a tense newsroom, a dangerous global conflict, and all the problems she’s running away from at home, by the acclaimed novelist that Megha Majumdar calls “a gem of a writer.”

Foreign correspondent Rita Das has left New York for the war-torn Middle East, a reassignment she asks for after she learns she is pregnant and is uncertain whether the father is her husband or her lover. As she strives to shed light on the fallouts of the war, Rita finds herself embroiled in her own conflicts with her interpreter and her news editor, her sources and her colleagues. She is unable to accept the loss of her mother and deal with her guilt for not being at her side when she died.

Fiercely independent and ambitious (and in her journalism, deeply humane), Rita is also in denial about her need for intimate human relationships. As she goes into the field to report on the war, she grapples with the physical and emotional tolls of her pregnant body and a turbulent region where the numbing repetition of war slides suddenly into horror. When her news editor delivers urgent orders for her to return to New York, Rita is faced with a choice about how she wants to live her life as a journalist and a soon-to-be mother.

Set in the years immediately after 9/11, and drawn from Devi Laskar’s own experience as a government reporter in the 1990s and early aughts, Midnight, at the War is an exploration of love and grief, of moral ambiguity and forgiveness, of modern war and the wars we wage within ourselves.

Genres: Middle East, Historical Fiction, War, Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication April 14, 2026

About the author

Devi S. Laskar is the author of The Atlas of Reds and Blues (Counterpoint Press, 2019), winner of 7th annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize (2020) for best debut novel set in the South, winner of the 2020 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; selected by The Georgia Center for the Book as a 2019 book “All Georgians Should Read,” finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award, long-listed for the DSC Prize in South Asian Literature and the Golden Poppy Award. The novel was named by The Washington Post as one of the 50 best books of 2019, and has garnered praise in Booklist, Chicago Review of Books, The Guardian and elsewhere.
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Laskar's second novel, CIRCA, will be published on May 3, 2022, by Mariner Books (@marinerbooks).
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Laskar holds an MFA from Columbia University and an MA in South & West Asian Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds BAs in English and Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is an alumna of both TheOpEdProject and VONA, among others. In 2017, Finishing Line Press published two poetry chapbooks. A native of Chapel Hill, N.C., she now lives in California with her family.

Reviews

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a nostalgic and fascinating glimpse into the life of someone who works as a government reporter during major world events. It takes place in the time of 9/11 and after and I love the way Rita struggles not just with the current events but her own personal hardships. There are heavy themes of guilt, loss, grief, pregnancy, and marriage. I admired her character as she navigates so many difficulties in her life, many relatable to the reader. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Paul Wagenbreth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Equal parts domestic drama and foreign adventure, Devi Laskar’s “Midnight, at the War” features as its protagonist a female journalist whose biracial ancestry includes a Wisconsinite father and a Bengali mother whose identification with her homeland is still strong enough after an extended time in the States that she has the family visiting India, where they witness an event so horrific that it leaves a psychic wound on Rita long after the family has returned stateside.
Not the end of Rita’s involvement with India, though, the childhood trauma, with how as an adult she is assigned there as a reporter, and from where she is reposted at the time of 9/11 to Egypt, which will bring its own trauma for her, including a couple of her journalist friends being snatched from an airplane, an apparent kidnapping of a woman and her two nieces in the middle of the day and her fear that an old college friend has been killed in the Towers.
Trauma enough, those alone, though intensified on the domestic front by her father pressing her to return stateside for her dying mother, and a complicated love life, including both a lover and a husband.
All of which makes for a lot to take in, especially with the foreign unfamiliarity. Still, an absorbing read, Laskar’s novel, especially for anyone like me who has logged time on newspapers.

[Heather Fineisen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A woman as journalist, daughter, sister, friend, colleague and wife is the center of this story inspired by strong female journalists. Specifically, in war torn countries reporting at risk to themselves and those who assist them from translators to drivers to shop keepers. Multi layered, Rita is drawn to the war and reporting the stories that depict the human side of suffering. An enthralling read that grapples with the personal existence of someone with such a dangerous calling. 9/11 influences the story line. The ending seemed a bit abrupt and unlikely but overall a character driven great read. My first by this author which just leaves me more to discover.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

[Jill Dobbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laskar writes a fictional tale about Rita, an Indian-American female journalist, who travels overseas to war-torn countries, writing about the culture and the people.

I enjoy reading nonfiction books about female reporters who travel to war-torn countries. Despite being fiction, I was engrossed in the story; however, this engrossment also meant that a great deal was left out, and I wanted more about her adventures overseas. The book was interspersed with family issues, the loss of her mother, and reporter friends who died. Laskar even hinted at the loss of a well-known American journalist who lost his life.

Midnight is an engrossing read.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for this ARC.

[Mila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating story with well-developed characters. I liked that they were flawed characters which made them seem real, but very few were likable. I feel like I learned a lot from this book as I was 17 during 9/11 and I enjoyed the different view of that time period. I’d recommend this book, and I’d read more from this author. I received it from a Goodreads giveaway.

[Nicole Overmoyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Mariner Books, NetGalley, and the author for the chance to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest, original review.

Unfortunately this book was not for me, though I did finish it. I know it will find a home in the hearts of other readers.