How to Dodge a Cannonball

A Novel

By: Dennard Dayle

A cutting, revealing caricature of the American Civil War, told through the eyes of a white teenager who joins an all-Black regiment of soldiers, for fans of Colson Whitehead and James McBride

Razor-sharp and hilarious, How to Dodge a Cannonball tells the story of Anders, a white teenager who volunteers to be a Union Army flag-twirler to escape his abusive mother. In desperate acts of self-preservation, he defects—twice—before joining a Black regiment at Gettysburg, claiming to be an octoroon. In his new and entirely incredulous unit, Anders becomes entangled with questionable military men and an arms dealer working for both sides. But more importantly he bonds with the other soldiers, finding friendship and a family he desperately needs. After deploying to New York City to suppress the draft riots and to Nevada to suppress Native Americans, Anders begins to see the war through the eyes of his newfound brothers.

Dayle’s satire spares no one, whether he’s writing about Anders’s naivete and unexpected love interest, the quirks of Confederate and Union soldiers, those out to make a quick buck off the tragedy of war, or the theater of war itself (literal theater, as the novel includes a one-act play the troop obsesses over while they wait for action).

Uproariously funny and revelatory, How to Dodge a Cannonball is an inimitable take on which America is worth fighting for.

©2025 Dennard Dayle (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Dennard Dayle’s second book certifies his talent. I can’t think of a wittier, more hilarious or more relevant young writer. How to Dodge a Cannonball is the great Civil War novel I didn’t know I needed, but now it is never leaving my shelf.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends and Super Sad True Love Story

“This is the Civil War send-up the American canon has been waiting for, and which today’s America, still unsure which version of itself it wants to become, so sorely needs. Dayle is one of our sharpest, funniest, and most unrelenting writers.”—Jessi Jezewska Stevens, author of The Exhibition of Persephone Q and The Visitors

“A sharp and chaotic skewering of everything America believes about itself, told from the point of view of a young man bumbling his way through the horrors of the Civil War. Full of absurdity and humanity in equal measure, Dayle treats warfare with all the reverence and respect it deserves, which is none.”—Jason Pargin, author of If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe and This Book is Full of Spiders