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A Novel
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.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/14/2026)
I read two pretty heavy books in a row - 'Midnight, at War' by Devi S. Laskar and 'A Guardian and a Thief' by Megha Majumdar. Both are intense and set at least in part in Kolkata. 'A Guardian and a Thief' is for my IRL book group and I've already heard negative reviews from at least one member. N...
-Evonne_Benedict
"An enthralling tale of a journalist's futile attempt to separate the personal from the political." —Booklist (starred review)
"Exemplary, tension-filled.... The hallmarks of this absorbing novel are embedded in two literary achievements—an unerring examination of terrorism at home and abroad and a gripping exploration of the damage done by unhealed trauma.... [Midnight, at the War is] a dynamic novel about one woman's struggle to understand the world and her own emotional chaos." —Kirkus Reviews
"Absorbing.... Devi S. Laskar's dynamic Midnight, at the War impressively captures a journalist more capable of reporting on global crises than confronting her own personal chaos." —Shelf Awareness
"Laskar has created a complex heroine for our complex times: a journalist who fights for what she knows to be right and just, but can't find the same clarity with the men she loves. Laced with rat-a-tat-tat humor, fast-paced action, and war-ravaged settings, Midnight, at the War is a powerful punch of a story about what happens when you stop being your own worst enemy." —Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist
"At a time when honest and brave journalism could not be more important, Devi Laskar shows us what covering news we don't always want to hear ought to look like, how it ought to be done and the high cost in particular to the women who take on the task. That Laskar manages to do so in a story that is also an intimately personal family story, a page-turner, and an exquisitely-crafted read is rather miraculous. This is a brilliant, devastating, necessary, and ultimately hopeful book – read it now." —Meg Waite Clayton, author of Typewriter Beach
This information about Midnight, at the War was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Devi S. Laskar is the author of The Atlas of Reds and Blues, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the Crook's Corner Book Prize, and was named a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards. Laskar's second novel, Circa, was a GOOP Book Club pick. In 2022, USA Today named Laskar among "50 AAPI authors" to read. She is an alumna of the OpEd Project and VONA and holds an MFA from Columbia University. Originally from North Carolina, Laskar now lives in Northern California.
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