New Book: The Last Refuge

In perhaps this blog’s worst kept secret, I have been writing a book. In fact, I started working on the book before Brian and I even started Waq al-waq.  Originally, the idea was the blog would serve as a sounding board for ideas I was playing with – that did not work out like I had planned.

But the book is now finished and available for pre-order.  And since I mentioned it in this PBS Frontline roundtable last night – which was paired with an excellent video from the incredibly brave Ghaith Abdul-Ahad – I thought I would provide a couple of links here.

The book, which is being published in the US by W.W. Norton, is a narrative non-fiction account of how al-Qaeda took root in Yemen, was defeated in the days after of 9/11 and then rebounded to constitute, once again, a terrorist threat to the US. 

Basically it is a story of how al-Qaeda developed in Yemen.  Along the way you get to meet most of the key figures in al-Qaeda and listen to them as they decide how to rebuild the organization in Yemen. 

It is much more of a story than anything here at Waq al-waq. I hope you enjoy it.  You can pre-order it from W.W. Norton here or from Amazon here.

(Note: Since the book won’t be released until November you won’t hear much about it here until we get closer to the release date, but since I mentioned it last night and some people were curious I decided to post the above.  Waq al-waq will continue to post as before.)