First published 2008
Michael Hastings reports from Baghdad's Green Zone as violence tears through the city around him. He shares this dangerous assignment with his fiancée, another journalist drawn to cover the unfolding chaos of the Iraq War. Together they navigate the fortified compound that serves as America's administrative heart in occupied Iraq. They document the brutal attacks, suicide bombings, and sectarian killings that define daily life in the war zone. Their professional partnership deepens into love amid the constant threat of death. The couple witnesses horrific violence as insurgents target civilians, soldiers, and journalists alike. When kidnappers seize his fiancée, Hastings faces the ultimate cost of war reporting. The abduction shatters not only their future together but forces him to confront how the pursuit of stories can exact an unbearable personal price. This is a story about love tested by war and journalism's deadly stakes.
Genres: memoir, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: love-in-wartime, personal-cost-of-war
Setting: Baghdad, Green Zone, Iraq
Period: Iraq War
288 pages · Hardcover · Scribner
Content warnings: violence, war