Join us for a night with Phoebe Greenwood, discussing
Vulture,
with Simon Ostrovsky
Tickets with, AND without a book are available here!
To be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE. Don't miss out!
An NPR Most Anticipated Book of Summer 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
Phoebe Greenwood is a writer and journalist living in London. Between 2010 and 2013, she was a freelance correspondent in Jerusalem covering the Middle East for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. From 2013 to 2021, she was an editor and correspondent at the Guardian specialising in foreign affairs.
Simon Ostrovsky is an Emmy-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker known for his groundbreaking work with VICE News, including the acclaimed “Russian Roulette” series from Ukraine and the pioneering open-source investigation Selfie Soldiers. He covered the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the wider Middle East for three years for a number of outlets including VICE News, VICE on HBO, MTV World and AFP. Simon currently reports for The PBS NewsHour, where he focuses on national security and the war in Ukraine. His work has earned duPont-Columbia, National Press Club, and Religion News Association awards, and he was recently nominated for a New York Emmy for his 2024 PBS documentary Living With Fentanyl.