Nick McDonell has published eleven books. His work has been translated into 23 languages and appeared on bestseller lists around the world.

He is the author of the novels Twelve, The Third Brother, An Expensive Education, and The Council of Animals, as well as a work of political theory, The Civilization of Perpetual Movement, and five books of reportage on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including The Bodies in Person. He has contributed reporting and essays to Harper's Magazine, The London Review of Books, Libération, The Paris Review, newyorker.com, and TIME, among other publications. He has also written for film and television.

As a reporter, McDonell has covered the wars in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. He helped found The Zomia Center, which is dedicated to the study of non-state spaces for scholarly and humanitarian pursuits.

He grew up in New York City and studied literature at Harvard and international relations at St. Anthony's College, Oxford.