It’s not often you get a story told from the perspective of a dog and, more remarkably, a dog that lives in a refugee camp. Yet Mutt’s narrative is possibly one of the less unusual aspects of Mohammed Hanif ’s Red Birds, which combines observations about US foreign policy with the lived experiences of those caught up in its international power struggles.

The book opens with Ellie, a US pilot, wandering in the Middle Eastern desert. On this mission, his last, his plane crashes in the very locale he was instructed to bomb. Ellie’s unlikely rescuer is Momo, a teenager who considers himself an entrepreneur and loves to dream big about his next quick rich scheme (like ‘Global Sands’, which involves selling sand to the Americans). Momo and Mutt take Ellie back to the refugee camp and from there we met a cast of satirical characters who demonstrate the human consequences of American hegemony.

Red Birds is an unsettling book for a number of reasons. The chapters alternate between Momo, Ellie and Mutt’s perspectives and it becomes increasingly difficult to determine whose observations are closest to reality. The setting for the book is also kept deliberately vague. Even the cover – swirling fonts and a striking red bird – belies its caustic observations about war, foreign policy and international aid (‘What is a war if not an opportunity?’).

In its last quarter, the book takes an unexpected turn, veering from quirky to fantastical.

Its themes, characters, tone and intent make Red Birds a singular novel – for that reason alone it’s well worth considering.

Reviewed by Louise Falconer