Search results for ""Dave Eggers" "Zeitoun""

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARD AND THE LA TIMES BOOK AWARD''Masterly. Brilliantly crafted, powerfully written and deftly reported'' Guardian The urgent and unforgettable true story of post-Katrina New Orleans . . .In August 2005, as Hurricane Katrina blew in, the city of New Orleans has been abandoned by most citizens. But resident Abdulrahman Zeitoun, though his wife and family had gone, refused to leave. For days he traversed an apocalyptic landscape of flooded streets by canoe. But eventually he came to the attention of those ''guarding'' this drowned city. Only then did Zeitoun''s nightmare really begin.Zeitoun is the powerful, ultimately uplifting true story of one man''s courage when confronted with an awesome force of nature followed by more troubling human oppression.''Eggers uses Zeitoun''s eyes to report on America''s reasonless post-Katrina world, Reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Márquez''s documentaries, this is a true story told with the skills of a master of fiction. Immensely readable'' Independent''The stuff of great narrative non-fiction. Fifty years from now, when people want to know what happened to this once-great city, they will be talking about a family named Zeitoun'' The New York Times Book ReviewTrade ReviewEggers uses Zeitoun's eyes to report on America's reasonless post-Katrina world. Reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's documentaries, this is a true story told with the skills of a master of fiction. Immensely readable * Independent *Masterly. Brilliantly crafted, powerfully written and deftly reported * Guardian *The shocking tale of a true New Orleans hero. This is narrative non-fiction at its very, very best * Herald *Shocking * The Times *Extraordinary, gripping * Daily Telegraph *Terrifying * Observer *Riveting * Vanity Fair *

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Book SynopsisNew from Dave Eggers, National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King.In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter''s college tuition, and finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy''s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment - and a moving story of how we got here.Praise for A Hologram for the King: ''Absorbing . . . modest and equally satisfying: the writing of a comic but deeply affecting tale about one man''s travails that also provides a bright, digital snapshot of our times'' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times''A fascinating novel'' New Yorker''A spare but moving elegy for the American century'' Publishers Weekly''Eggers understands the pressures of American downward-mobility, and in the protagonist of his novel, Alan Clay, has created an Everyman, a post-modern Willy Loman . . . The novel operates on a grand and global scale, but it also is intimate'' Chicago Tribune''Completely engrossing'' Fortune''Eggers can do fiction as well as he likes'' Los Angeles TimesDave Eggers is the author of six previous books: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, How We Are Hungry, You Shall Know Our Velocity, What is the What, The Wild Things and Zeitoun. Zeitoun was the winner of the American Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and What is the What was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and won France''s Prix Médicis. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney''s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco. A native of Chicago, he lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.Trade ReviewA fascinating novel * New Yorker *A spare but moving elegy for the American century * Publishers Weekly *Completely engrossing * Fortune *Dave Eggers is a prince among men when it comes to writing deeply felt, socially conscious books that meld reportage with fiction. [Hologram] is a strike against the current state of global economic in justice -- Elissa Schappell * Vanityfair.com *

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Book SynopsisFrom the best-selling author of The Circle - the gripping true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana''a by civil warMokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he becomes fascinated with the rich history of coffee and Yemen''s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral home to tour terraced farms high in the country''s rugged mountains. He collects samples and organizes farmers and is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs the country. Saudi bombs rain down, the U.S. embassy closes, and Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen with only his hopes on his back.The Monk of Mokha is the story of this courageous and visionary young man following the most American of dreams.''Extraordinary... No story is more urgent'' Observer''Dramatic, aspiTrade ReviewReaders will never take coffee for granted or overlook the struggles of Yemen after ingesting Eggers's phenomenally well-written, juggernaut tale of an intrepid and irresistible entrepreneur on a complex and meaningful mission, a highly caffeinated adventure story * Booklist *A most improbable and uplifting success story... Eggers offers an appealing hybrid: a biography of a charming, industrious Muslim man who has more ambition than direction; a capsule history of coffee and its origins, growth, and development as a mass commodity and then as a niche product; the story of Blue Bottle, the elite coffee chain in San Francisco that some suspect (and some fear) could turn into the next Starbucks; an adventure story of civil war in a foreign country... It is hard to resist the derring-do of the Horatio Alger of Yemenite coffee * Kirkus *The remarkable true story of a Yemeni coffee farmer... A vibrant depiction of courage and passion, interwoven with a detailed history of Yemeni coffee and a timely exploration of Muslim American identity * Entertainment Weekly *Works as both a heart-warming success story with a winning central character and an account of real-life adventures that read with the vividness of fiction * Publishers Weekly *It'll open your eyes - very wide - to the singular origins of your single origin * Esquire (UK) *Definitely one for book club * Elle (UK) *Eggers's narrative is guaranteed to be every bit as compelling as that of any novel * The Observer *Dave Eggers returns to his "factional" mode with The Monk Of Mokha, in which a Yemeni immigrant to the US discovers an obsession with coffee, returns home, and is caught in a war. Given his previous form with What Is The What and Zeitoun I have high hopes of this book * The Scostman *This is a book that celebrates ethnic diversity and the exuberance of the human spirit * Mail on Sunday *[Dave Eggers] is on a mission to use the platform he has created as a writer/activist to give direct voice to the marginalised or unheard... No story is more urgent * Observer *Bridgemakers such as Mokhtar courageously embody America's reason for being - as a place of radical opportunity and ceaseless welcome... a blended people united not by stasis and cowardice and fear, but by irrational exuberance, by global enterprise on a human scale * The Guardian *It's hard to imagine ALkhanshali's story being told with more pace, scope or sensitivity. An extraordinary adventure * The Times *Mokhtar's story is a remarkable one, full of derring-do, tenacity and exceptional luck * Metro *It is impossible not to root for Mokhtar. And as with all good bildungsromans, it is as much the reader as the hero who receives an education * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis"They Will Have to Die Now is the story of what happened after most Americans stopped paying attention to Iraq…It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades." —George Packer, author of Our Man and The Assassins’ GateTrade Review"Most war reporters pay short visits to the front lines, grabbing images and stories that shock us and, at their best, sketch a few details of the larger story. Great ones, like Verini, immerse you in the danger and horror and thrill and black comedy of these places with novelistic detail." -- Mark Bowden - Airmail"(Verini) has written not only a deeply human account of the conflict but also a fascinating historical investigation of Mosul itself." -- Elliott Ackerman - New York Times"(A) deeply reported, beautifully written first-person account." -- Anne Barnard - Foreign Affairs"A painful, moving, and necessary read… Verini is almost recklessly brave. He embedded himself, whenever he could, with virtually every kind of allied unit fighting ISIS, and he found himself in the middle of the action, constantly. He was present when the snipers opened up, when the car bombs came, and when the mortars fell. (And) because he was so brave — because he spent days, weeks, and months with the men who fought — he was able to capture the truth of war in Iraq (and of Iraq itself) in a way that precious few writers have. In fact, he helped me to make more sense, over a decade later, of my own deployment." -- David French - National Review"A vivid and bare-knuckles account of the fight against ISIS." -- Tom Bowman - NPR"(An) eloquent, awesome account." -- Robert Fisk - The Independent"A poignant and detailed profile, beautifully written, of people in war… They Will Have to Die Now is an exceptional study both of modern war and of the most significant battle in the war against Islamic State. I read each page with relish and gratitude." -- Anthony Lloyd - The Times"A necessary book… Verini’s front-line reporting is exhilarating." -- Telegraph"Verini’s account is startlingly candid and informed. A deeply thoughtful boots-on-the-ground work about a topic that many of us have stopped thinking about." -- Kirkus Reviews"Verini offers up a searing account of the battle against the Islamic State in Mosul in 2016 and 2017, focusing not just on the clashes with the jihadi fighters but also on the plight of the people caught in the middle of the battling forces ... Verini presents with sensitivity the bloody and complicated history of the area, the fraught feelings Iraqis have towards America and its involvement in their country, and the way conflict with the Islamic State has ripped families apart. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand this ongoing and tragic conflict." -- Booklist"A deadly accurate, richly illuminating, profoundly saddening work." -- Gen. Merrill McPeak, US Air Force Chief of Staff, Ret."They Will Have to Die Now is the story of what happened after most Americans stopped paying attention to Iraq. It’s a small miracle that a writer as good as James Verini witnessed the battle of Mosul. His book is erudite, humane, bleakly funny, and unbearably sad. It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades." -- George Packer, author of Our Man and The Assassins’ Gate"An urgent, scalding, hallucinatory work of war reportage, in the tradition of Michael Herr and Philip Gourevitch. His account…captures the horror, the nobility, and the sheer grinding absurdity of twenty-first-century warfare…A significant achievement." -- Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times best-selling author of Say Nothing"They Will Have to Die Now is a vivid, captivating, compelling, and graphic account of the major battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, the Battle for Mosul…James Verini conveys brilliantly the often tragic ancient and modern history of Iraq, and he captures superbly the brutal reality of one of the most intense urban battles since WWII. In so doing, he describes the terrible hardships experienced by the Moslawis and both the worst and the best of mankind in war." -- Gen. David Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) former commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, and former director of the CIA"Verini’s firsthand account of the Battle of Mosul is a thing of terrible beauty." -- Jonathan Franzen"James Verini’s book stands comparison with the pathbreaking works of modern war journalism that meld into great literature. One has to go back to the Vietnam War and Michel Herr’s Dispatches to find such a vivid, poignant, and historically grounded narrative of an appalling war; a war caused no little by the misdeeds, missteps, and malevolence of the myriad powers and forces that have tried to dominate the Middle East." -- Ali Allawi, former minister of finance, defense, and trade of Iraq"With the eye of a novelist and a historian’s sweep, James Verini tells a moving, gripping, complexly layered story of Mosul, from the private calamities of its present to the buried dynasties of its past." -- Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning"This is a stunning book, brave in its reporting and beautiful in its writing. It is funny and sad and seared into me, and I can’t recommend it highly enough, not just to people interested in the truth of a war but to anyone in search of the truth of humanity." -- David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter at the Washington Post and author of The Good Soldiers"This is such an important and deeply nuanced book. Verini paints absolutely convincing portraits of the Iraqi soldiers trying to take their broken country back, and in humanizing them, he joins the ranks of Liebling and Pyle and Gellhorn—American journalists able to embed so selflessly with soldiers, to listen first and theorize rarely, to tell a story as it happened. He does us and the Iraqis trying to rebuild, after decades of catastrophic war, a service." -- Dave Eggers, best-selling author of Zeitoun, A Hologram for the King, and The Circle"The definitive account of one of the most pivotal and bitter military campaigns of the modern era…This isn’t typical military history, though, but an eyewitness account of what happens to ordinary people who find themselves living on the battlefield, the compromises they must make to stay alive…This is war reporting at its very best." -- Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in Arabia"James Verini plunges you into the heart of the climactic battle of the Iraq War and won’t let you leave. He seems to be everywhere, gets to know everyone, vividly chronicles everything he sees and hears—and never once calls attention to himself. The weapons may be new—drones and iPads and executions on YouTube—but the blood and confusion and betrayal are as old as war itself. They Will Have To Die Now is an astonishment." -- Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor of Ken Burns’s The Civil War, The War, and The Vietnam War

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