The book was published in English on March 15, 2012 by Blue Rider Press, and in French as Le Livre de Jonas by Éditions Gallimard.

[1][2] The story is set sometime after the September 11 attacks in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, where Younis, a 15-year-old local boy survives an errant U.S. military operation.

As these memories surface, Jonas become more and more unstable, drinking to the point of blackout and acting abusively toward Shakri, in scenes that are reminiscence of returning soldiers' experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder.

[5][6] It was a semifinalist for the 2012 First Novelist Award,[7] and it was named one of the ten best books of 2012 by the Wall Street Journal, which called it "the year's finest novel addressing America's 21st-century wars.

[11][12] A reviewer for the Wall Street Journal commented that Dau's writing was occasionally flat, but that he also "beautifully addresses a need to emotionally engage with a war that has been going on for 10 years but that so often feels remote and unreal".