«This is reportage pure and simple—and it is first-rate . . . [Mr. Wright] recounts his findings in crystalline prose [and] never loses his own moral compass.» —Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal
«Definitive: a narrative roadmap of how we got here, from the ashes of Lower Manhattan to the rise of the Islamic State . . . Few journalists understand [this] ever-evolving war better than Wright.» —Michael Friscolanti, Maclean’s
“A new insightful, informative series of essays . . . Taken together, they provide a thoughtful analysis of the forces that have shaped a volatile part of the world and the policies that have made peace so elusive.” —Dale Singer, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
«Wright [weaves] his research . . . into a fine tapestry of personal experience and unobtrusive reflection.» –James Traub, The New York Times Book Review
«Wright has a gift only the most talented journalists possess: Whether unpacking large and complex entities like al-Qaeda or drawing in-depth profiles of FBI agents, he brings the world vividly to our fingertips.» —O Magazine
«Clear and sharp writing . . . Each story is a densely packed nugget of information.» –USA Today
With the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. Here, in ten powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker, he recalls the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, from the rise of al-Qaeda in the 1990s to the recent beheadings of reporters and aid workers by ISIS.