The Looming Tower

not even a very religious man before he began this journey, although he had memorized the Quran by the age of ten, and his writing had recently taken a turn toward more conservative themes. Like many of his compatriots, he was radicalized by the British occupation and contemptuous of the jaded King Farouk s complicity. Egypt was racked by anti-British protests and seditious political factions bent on running the foreign troops out of the country and perhaps the king as well. What made this unimposing, midlevel government clerk particularly dangerous was his blunt and potent commentary. He had never gotten to the front rank of the contemporary Arab literary scene, a fact that galled him throughout his career; and yet from the government s point of view, he was becoming an annoyingly important enemy.

He was Western in so many ways his dress, his love of classical music and Hollywood movies. He had read, in translation, the works of Darwin and Einstein, Byron and Shelley, and had immersed himself in French literature, especially Victor Hugo. Even before his journey, however, he worried about the advance of an all-engulfing Western civilization. Despite his erudition, he saw the West as a single cultural entity. The distinctions between capitalism and Marxism, Christianity and Judaism, fascism and democracy were insignificant by comparison with the single great divide in Qutb s mind: Islam and the East on the one side, and the Christian West on the other.

America, however, stood apart from the colonialist adventures that had characterized Europe s relations with the Arab world. America, at the end of the Second World War, straddled the political chasm between the colonizers and the colonized. Indeed, it was tempting to imagine America as the anticolonial paragon: a subjugated nation that had broken free and triumphantly outstripped its former masters. America s

A magisterial, beautifully crafted narrative . . . This focus on character, along with Wright s five years of fierce on-the-ground reporting (he lists 560 interviewees), pays off.   Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Los Angeles Times

Deeply researched . . . immaculately crafted.   Peter Bergen, The Wall Street Journal

What a riveting tale Lawrence Wright fashions in this marvelous book.   The Looming Tower is not just a detailed, heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and verve.  [It s] a thoughtful examination of the world that produced the men who brought us 9/11, and of their progeny who bedevil us today.   The portrait of John O Neill, the driven, demon-ridden F.B. I. agent who worked so frantically to stop Osama bin Laden, only to perish in the attack on the World Trade Center, is worth the price of the book alone.   The Looming Tower is a thriller.  And it s a tragedy, too. Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review cover

Dozens of intricately reported books about 9/11 are already available; I had read perhaps half of them [before] starting The Looming Tower. But Lawrence Wright s book is my new touchstone. None of the previous books led me to say Aha, now I think I understand as frequently.   Steve Weinberg, The Boston Globe

A magisterial, beautifully crafted narrative . . . This focus on character, along with Wright s five years of fierce on-the-ground reporting (he lists 560 interviewees), pays off. Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Los Angeles Times

Deeply researched . . . immaculately crafted. Peter Bergen, The Wall Street Journal

A searing view of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a view that is at once wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping in its historical perspective . . . a narrative history that possesses all the immediacy and emotional power of a novel, an account that indelibly illustrates how the political and the personal, the public and the private were often inextricably intertwined. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Important, gripping . . . One of the best books yet on the history of terrorism.   Publishers Weekly, starred review

Lawrence Wright provides a graceful and remarkably intimate set of portraits of the people who brought us 9/11. It is a tale of extravagant zealotry and incessant bumbling that would be merely absurd if the consequences were not so grisly.   Gary Sick

"Lawrence Wright's integrity and diligence as a reporter shine through every page of this riveting narrative."  Robert A. Caro

A towering achievement. One of the best and more important books of recent years. Lawrence Wright has dug deep into and written well a story every American should know. A masterful combination of reporting and writing.   Dan Rather

Comprehensive and compelling Wright has written what must be considered a definitive work on the antecedents to 9/11 Essential for an understanding of that dreadful day. starred Kirkus review