Synopses & Reviews
Written by one of France's most esteemed intellectuals and journalists, this investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl asserts that Pearl was murdered not necessarily because he was an American or Jewish, as previously assumed, but because he had uncovered links between al-Qaida terrorists and the Pakistani government. Lévy claims that Pearl was investigating links between "the most violent and most anti-American faction" in the Pakistani intelligence service and terrorists who were trading nuclear arms secrets with Iran and North Korea. This gripping saga retraces Pearl's steps from India through Kandahar, Karachi, and the murky Islamic underground of a Pakistan draped in "an odor of the apolocalypse." Told with great compassion for the heroic Pearl-whose widow and parents cooperated with and assisted the author-the story ultimately transcends the reporter's tragic ending with a ringing call to reexamine what Daniel Pearl died trying to uncover.
Review
"[A] gripping read...full of suspenseful twists....The earlier passages of the book, which take some literary license in describing what Pearl must have felt, [are] alone worth the price of admission." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[G]uaranteed to shake the foundations of neo-conservative land....This all makes for gripping reading." Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online
Synopsis
The shocking book that caused a furor in Europe now comes to America...
It was a horrible tragedy, but what if, hidden behind the story of the gruesome on-camera murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, was another, still darker story?
What if the people who murdered him weren't actually fanatic followers of Osama bin Laden?
What if he wasn't murdered as was universally assumed because he was Jewish and American?
What if he was murdered because he was onto something?
In a groundbreaking book that combines a novelist's eye with riveting investigative journalism, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of the world's most esteemed writers, retraces Pearl's final steps through a murky Islamic underworld, suffused by "an odor of the apocalypse." The investigation plunges Lévy into his own heart of darkness and a series of stunning revelations about who the real terrorists are.
About the Author
Bernard-Henri Lévy is one of France's most famous philosophers and one of the bestselling writers in Europe. He is also one of the world's most preeminent journalists, having started his career as a war reporter for
Combat, the famous underground newspaper founded by Camus during the Nazi occupation of France. Lévy covered the war between Pakistan and India over Bangladesh. Returning to Paris, he became famous as the dashing young founder of the New Philosophers group. His 1977 book
Barbarism With a Human Face caused the kind of sensation that Camus'
The Rebel incited in the 1950's, and since then, Lévy's novels and essays have continued to stir up such excitement that
The Guardian recently noted he is "accorded the kind of adulation in France that most countries reserve for their rock stars."
Lévy has held several diplomatic positions with the French government, and written numerous books. In particular, he has written several books about the Islamic Middle East, and in 2002 he was appointed by the French government to head a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in the wake of its war with the U.S.