Kirjahaku

In the Wake of the Surge is a gripping first-person narrative that tells the story of the Kurds, the Arabs, and the Americans in Iraq during one of the most violent and wrenching periods in that country's history. Award-winning foreign correspondent Michael J. Totten visited Iraq seven times between 2005 and 2009, first as a "unilateral" freelance journalist without a gun in the Kurdish autonomous region, and then as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in Baghdad, Sadr City, Ramadi, and Fallujah. He was there at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of General David Petraeus' "surge" of combat troops to Iraq and saw first-hand how young men from places like Florida and Texas pacified a relentless insurgency-an insurgency that most people, during the darkest days of the war, assumed would be victorious. In the Wake of the Surge is a bracing story of war in a tormented country by a writer who has spent enough time in the Middle East to know there are few happy endings, but who nevertheless was a witness when Iraqis and Americans drove each other to the brink of the abyss before managing, against all odds and at the very last second, to pull back and save themselves from utter catastrophe. Praise for Michael J. Totten "I think of only a certain number of people as having risen to the intellectual and journalistic challenges of the last few years, and Michael J. Totten is one of them." - Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism "Michael J. Totten...practices journalism in the tradition of Orwell: morally imaginative, partisan in the best sense of the word, and delivered in crackling, rapid-fire prose befitting the violent realities it depicts. An unabashed classical liberal, Totten brings his political commitments and emotional intelligence to bear on the dramatic events he witnesses. As a result, he ends up far more clearsighted than the many analysts who claim 'objectivity' but share neither his love of the region and its inhabitants nor his concern for its future." - Sohrab Ahmari, Commentary "Michael J. Totten is a one of a rare breed. Moving from front to front, he brings experience and context and the willingness to go where few men dare." - Michael Yon, author of Moment of Truth in Iraq "Michael J. Totten, to my mind, is one of the world's most acute observers of Middle East politics. He is also an absolutely fearless reporter, both physically-he has explored the darkest corners of Middle East extremism-and morally." - Jeffrey Goldberg, author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror Praise for The Road to Fatima Gate "A terrific book about a terrifying and beautiful part of the world." - Benjamin Kerstein, Jewish Ideas Daily columnist "It is extremely rare to read such an accurate account of anything to which one was oneself a witness." - Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great "A thriller in which a daredevil reporter puts himself in harm's way in search of the inside story of some of the most dangerous outfits in the world." - Amir Taheri, Asharq al-Awsat "Outstanding...it grabbed me so quickly that I ended up lost in it." - Claire Berlinski, Ricochet

The Road to Fatima Gate is a first-person narrative account of revolution, terrorism, and war during history's violent return to Lebanon after fifteen years of quiet. Michael J. Totten's version of events in one of the most volatile countries in the world's most volatile region is one part war correspondence, one part memoir, and one part road movie. He sets up camp in a tent city built in downtown Beirut by anti-Syrian dissidents, is bullied and menaced by Hezbollah's supposedly friendly "media relations" department, crouches under fire on the Lebanese-Israeli border during the six-week war in 2006, witnesses an Israeli ground invasion from behind a line of Merkava tanks, sneaks into Hezbollah's postwar rubblescape without authorization, and is attacked in Beirut by militiamen who enforce obedience to the "resistance" at the point of a gun. From the Cedar Revolution that ousted the occupying Syrian military regime in 2005 to the devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 to Hezbollah's slow-motion but violent assault on Lebanon's elected government and capital, Totten's account is both personal and comprehensive. He simplifies the bewildering complexity of the Middle East; gains access to major regional players as well as to the man on the street; and personally witnesses most of the events he describes. The Road to Fatima Gate should be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the Middle East, Iran's expansionist foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, asymmetric warfare, and terrorism in the aftermath of September 11.

The stunning, final chapter in the Resurrection Trilogy.The end has come. Seattle has burned to the ground. The Rocky Mountain West is as empty as a moonscape. But the eastern United States is teeming with the infected, with militias, with bandits . . . and worse. Annie Starling is still alive, though, and she carries a great and terrible secret. If she and her companions can make it all the way to Atlanta, they might be able to save whatever scrap of civilization remains. But they can't get there alone, and the men who say they can take her may pose the most dangerous threat to her yet. Critical Praise for the Resurrection Trilogy"Riveting Nail biting A couldn't-put-down read that kept this Walking Dead fan on the edge of her seat." -Annie Reed, author of The Patient Z Files"For fans of World War Z and The Walking Dead, Michael J. Totten's Resurrection is the novel you've been waiting for." -Scott William Carter, author of Ghost Detective"Resurrection dragged me in from the first page, with fast-paced, suspense-filled action and multi-layered and totally believable characters. Painting a vivid and gritty picture of a post-apocalyptic Northwest, Totten puts us into the minds and emotional struggles of a group of mismatched survivors forced to band together for protection even when they're on the verge or ripping each other apart. He also wrote one of the scariest passages I've read in any horror or suspense story... so be warned if you're afraid of the dark, or water, or both." -JC Andrijeski, author of Rook