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PUBLISHER RANDOM HOUSE
©2009
ISBN-10 0307279448
ISBN-13 9780307279446
FORMAT Paperback
PAGES 368
Size 8.25 x 5 x 0.75
Weight 0.78
PUBLISHED 2009-06-02
From Strand Bookstore
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year. Through the eyes of New York Times foreign correspondent Christopher Filkins, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, the aftermath of the attack on New York on September 11, 2001, and the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. An instant classic of war reportage, THE FOREVER WAR is the definitve account of America's conflict with Islamic fundamentalism. A riveting narrative, it brims over with unforgettable characters and astonishing scenes. Notes, Index. Illus., 11 b&w photos. 368p.
From the Publisher
A correspondent furnishes a best-selling account of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, from the rise of the Taliban, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, offering a compelling study of the people involved from all sides of the conflict. Reprint. A New York Times Best Book of the Year and a Nation Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Review
Craig Seligman -
Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.)
"[Filkins's] focus is on the human cost of war; he isn't out to lambast U.S. policy or strategy (except implicitly), and so readers anywhere on the political spectrum can respond to his writing.... What Filkins has to offer is stories--dozens of them. He's a master of the moment, of the concrete, of the texture. Where others try to explain, he wants you to know what being there feels like....I couldn't put this book down."
Review
Sue Halpern -
New York Review of Books
"Filkins practices a kind of literary pointillism, and when the dots are connected what you get is context, the very thing that has been missing from most of the other first-person accounts of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Review
Robert Stone -
New York Times Book Review
"Now, in the tradition of DISPATCHES, with the publication of Dexter Filkins's stunning book, THE FOREVER WAR, it seems the journals of the brave correspondents assigned to the Middle East will take their place as the pre-eminent record of America's late-imperial adventures, the heart of these heartless exercises in disaster, maybe some consolation to those maimed and bereaved in them.... The work Filkins accomplishes in THE FOREVER WAR is one of the most effective antitoxins that the writing profession has produced to counter the administration's fascinating contemporary public relations tactic....Filkins uses the truth as observed firsthand to detail an arid, hopeless policy in an unpromising part of the world. His writing is one of the scant good things to come out of the war."
More about the book
Journalist Dexter Filkins provides a long view of the conflict with Islamofascism, before and after 9/11. Filkins reports on the rise of the Taliban in the '90s, the attacks of September 11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and their aftermath. He covers a great deal of territory, reporting from many locales on the lives of everyday people caught up in the historical events. Selected as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008, and winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award for best general nonfiction book.
First Line
The marines were pressed flat on a rooftop when the dialogue began to unfold. It was 2 a.m. The minarets were flashing by the light of airstrikes and rockets were sailing on trails of sparks. First came the voices from the mosques, rising above the thundery guns. "The Americans are here!"
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