First published 2016
Richard Engel arrived in Cairo at twenty-three with two thousand dollars and reporter aspirations. His first assignment covered Italian tourists massacred at a museum, introducing him to the violence that would define his career. Across twenty years as NBC's chief foreign correspondent, Engel witnessed the Arab Spring uprisings, the fall of Mubarak and Morsi in Egypt, Lebanese conflicts, the entire Iraq war, Libyan rebels overthrowing Gaddafi, and Syria's descent into chaos as Al-Qaeda intervened. He survived hotel bombings, kidnapping in Syria, and dangerous assignments with the Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Iraq. Engel maintained his composure and humor while gaining unprecedented access to major political figures, frontline soldiers, and civilian victims. His reporting captures the suffering of local populations during this transformative period in Middle Eastern history. This memoir chronicles his adventures and observations from the ground level of historic upheavals.
Genres: history, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism, middle-east, current-affairs
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-hand-account, personal-narrative
Setting: Afghanistan, Cairo, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Middle East, Syria
Period: Arab Spring, 21st Century
241 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Content warnings: violence