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Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date.

丹尼斯·約翰遜（1949— ）　生於德國慕尼黑，長於日本、菲律賓和美國，曾獲眾多文學奬項。根據他的作品《耶穌之子》改編的同名電影被《紐約時報》、《洛杉磯時報》等評為年度十佳電影；《煙樹》獲2007年美國全國圖書奬，並獲普利策奬提名。

約翰遜是一個極力避免聚光燈的作傢。他沒有自己的網站，從不為自己的書作宣傳。甚至在全國圖書奬頒奬當晚，他都遠在伊拉剋體驗生活。

約翰遜善以後現代主義的筆法描寫那些在宏大時代和悲慘命運中痛苦掙紮的靈魂。有人認為，他的作品有一種狂亂和痛苦的美，和陀思妥耶夫斯基筆下的人物一樣淒涼，和愛倫·坡一樣充滿激情，讓人恐懼。