Between 1985 and 1993, Bob Shacochis published two story collections and a novel, two of which were finalists for, and one of which won, the National Book Award. As literary percentages go, these are Ted Williams numbers. Twenty years have passed without another work of fiction from Shacochis, though he has published other books, including The Immaculate Invasion, a grim and gorgeously written account of Operation Uphold Democracy (less idealistically known as the 1994 U.S. invasion of Haiti) for which Shacochis embedded with American Special Forces years before “embedding” was part of the journalistic lexicon.

His new novel,