Essential reading in a time of global upheaval—a unique, impassioned and vital guide to peaceful, creative resistance in a violent era.

‘Now more than ever, the world needs a book like Draw Your Weapons. With mastery, urgency and great courage, Sarah Sentilles investigates the histories of art, violence, war and human survival.’—Ruth Ozeki

‘A unique and necessary book.’—John Jeremiah Sullivan

Sarah Sentilles was almost ordained as a priest before she began writing the stories of two men differently affected by war. One is a former soldier who had been stationed at Abu Ghraib, and the other a conscientious objector during World War II. Both men respond to war, and reclaim their dignity, in the same way—by making art.

With echoes of Maggie Nelson and Susan Sontag, Sentilles uses a dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature and theology to try to make a language for making sense of this imperfect world.

Draw Your Weapons is an utterly original meditation on art and war that wrestles with our most profound questions. It will transform the way you see the world.