Author Guide · Nonfiction & Fiction
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George Packer began as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Togo and wrote his first book about the waiting that filled its days. He went on to report the Iraq war for The New Yorker, and then turned to his own country: The Unwinding told a generation of American decline through a handful of ordinary lives and won the National Book Award. In November 2025 he published his third novel, a fable about an empire that collapses from boredom. This guide covers all eleven of his books in order, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 books · Nonfiction and fiction · 1988–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
George Packer has published eleven books since 1988: nonfiction about Africa, his family and American liberalism, the Iraq war, Richard Holbrooke and the state of American democracy; three novels, most recently The Emergency (2025); a play; and a collection of essays. The Unwinding (2013) is where most readers start.
Where to Start with George Packer
If you want the famous one
→ The Unwinding (2013).
If you want the most recent
→ The Emergency (2025).
If you want Iraq
→ The Assassins' Gate (2005).
If you want a biography
→ Our Man (2019).
All 11 George Packer Books, in Order
The Village of Waiting
His years as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Togo, West Africa, in the early 1980s.
The Half Man
His first novel, about a young American journalist far from home.
Central Square
A novel set around Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about characters caught between private desires and the life of a community.
Blood of the Liberals
Three generations of his family, from his grandfather, a Southern congressman, to his father, a Stanford law professor, as a way into the history of twentieth-century American liberalism.
The Assassins' Gate
How the Iraq war was conceived in Washington and fought in Iraq, from Packer's reporting for The New Yorker. Packer had initially supported the invasion. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year.
Betrayed
A play about Iraqi interpreters who worked for the Americans, based on his New Yorker reporting. It won the Lucille Lortel Award for best off-Broadway play.
Interesting Times
Essays from September 11, 2001, to the election of November 2008.
The Unwinding
America from the late 1970s to 2012, told through a few ordinary and not-so-ordinary lives, among them a factory worker in Youngstown, Ohio, a North Carolina entrepreneur and a Washington insider, interspersed with portraits of famous Americans.
Our Man
The life of the diplomat Richard Holbrooke, from Vietnam to the Dayton peace accords and Afghanistan, as a portrait of American power in its last confident era.
Last Best Hope
A short book on American democracy in crisis, in which Packer describes four competing narratives of America and argues for a renewed common ground.
The Emergency
A novel about an empire that collapses, and Dr. Hugo Rustin, a surgeon who finds himself estranged from his city and his teenage daughter as youth movements of townspeople and countryfolk turn against each other.
How Many Books Did George Packer Write?
Eleven books between 1988 and 2025, besides several books he edited.
- Nonfiction — The Village of Waiting, Blood of the Liberals, The Assassins' Gate, The Unwinding, Our Man and Last Best Hope. Read the entries →
- Fiction — The Half Man, Central Square and The Emergency. Read the entries →
- Play and essays — Betrayed and Interesting Times. Read the entries →
- Edited — listed further down. See the full list →
In What Order to Read George Packer
His books are not a series. The Unwinding and Last Best Hope belong together as his portrait of America in decline and the argument for what comes next; The Emergency retells the same anxieties as fiction.
A reading path
1. The Unwinding (2013)
2. The Assassins' Gate (2005)
3. Our Man (2019)
4. The Emergency (2025)
Everything Else George Packer Wrote: The Full List
Books he edited or introduced.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
As editor
3
3 books · 2003–2011
- 2003The Fight Is for Democracyessays
- 2008Facing Unpleasant Facts and All Art Is Propagandatwo volumes of George Orwell's essays
- 2011The Photographs of Arthur Rothsteinwith the Library of Congress
Quick facts about George Packer
- Born
- August 13, 1960, Santa Clara, California
- Education
- Yale University
- Peace Corps
- Togo, 1982–83
- Magazines
- The New Yorker, 2003–2018; The Atlantic since 2018
- Prizes
- National Book Award (2013); Robert F. Kennedy Book Award; Lucille Lortel Award
- Books
- 11, from 1988 to 2025
How George Packer Writes: The Nation Through Lives
Packer explains large political changes through individual people. The Unwinding follows a few Americans across decades, in a structure inspired by John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy.
He moves between reporting, history, memoir and fiction, and often questions his own earlier positions, as in his writing about the Iraq war.
Frequently asked questions about George Packer's books
How many books has George Packer written?
George Packer has published eleven books, from The Village of Waiting (1988) to the novel The Emergency (2025).
What is The Unwinding about?
The Unwinding (2013) tells the story of America from the late 1970s to 2012 through the lives of a handful of people. It won the National Book Award.
What is George Packer's newest book?
His newest book is the novel The Emergency, published in November 2025.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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