New Releases by Lawrence Wright

Thirty never-before collected essays—many of them profiles—by the Pulitzer Prize–winning and bestselling author of The Looming Tower, Going Clear, and The Plague Year. These brilliant pieces reveal the broad spectrum of Wright’s cultural and political observations over the past thirty five years Spanning more than thirty five years of Lawrence Wright’s reporting for The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone and other magazines, these pieces remind us what a brilliant observer Wright has been of institutions, of political maneuverings, and of people—dangerous, eccentric, or beloved. Some of the essays included: ORPHANS OF JONESTOWN (1993): A profile of Jim Jones’ two sons. In 1978, when they left Jonestown to play in a basketball tournament, their father ordered the deaths of everyone they knew and loved, leaving them alone in a society uncomprehending of their experience. A RAPIST’S HOMECOMING (1995): The ethical dilemma of a prison therapist, concerned that her patient—about to be released—could attack again. A LIVING DOLL (1988): A very personal column. How the author relates to his 5-year-old daughter through her dolls and stuffed animals. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RICHARD BRAUTIGAN (1985): An incisive look at the 1960’s and 1970’s literary icon. CAPTURED ON FILM (2006): Dissident filmmakers in Syria. SPACE CADET (1981): How a sanitary engineer combined her expertise and career with her love of space exploration and NASA. THE ELEPHANT IN THE COURTOOM (2022): Should animals have legal rights? And many others: A profile of the great spitball pitcher, Gaylord Perry; a look at how a Pentecostal Texas cattle farmer and an orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem come together over the End of Days; a 2006 essays detailing an attack in Gaza that mirrors the tragedies occurring today; a profile of Jamaal Khashoggi; one of Jimmy Carter; and a group of essays that deal with Wright’s life as a father. This is an important collection that will demand attention, and a stirring overview of an extraordinary career.

Lawrence Wright at the height of his powers. Centers around the newfound—and forced—relationship between a Palestinian American FBI agent and a hard-line Israeli cop, working together uneasily to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. Moving, thrilling, with extraordinary scope, it does for Palestine and Israel what Gorky Park did years ago for Russia. In the vein of John le Carré and Graham Greene, this is the rare novel that manages to entertain, educate, and deeply move the reader. Tony Malik is a half-Irish, half-Arab New York–based FBI agent, specializing in money flowing from drug and arms deals. The novel opens in shocking fashion, with Malik seriously injured by a terrorist-planted bomb. During his lengthy recuperative process, his life changes radically. A long-term relationship ends, and his job is on the verge of being taken away from him. During this period he learns more about his roots and becomes interested in his father''s past and family—his father came to America years ago from Palestine. Malik decides to make a trip to his father''s homeland to attend the wedding of his niece, whom he has never met. As a result of his plans, he is given a simple assignment by his boss at the FBI, partly to see how well he can still do his job. That simple assignment becomes anything but simple. As soon as he arrives in Gaza, the Israeli police chief overseeing the area is murdered. Malik is at first a suspect. Then, due to his superior investigative skills, he is invited into the Israeli investigation, seeking the murderer. At the core of this novel is Malik''s relationship with Yossi, the hard-line anti-Arab Israeli police officer leading the investigation. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side. Extraordinary three-dimensional characters populate this novel: Yossi''s daughter, studying in Paris, trying to escape the violence that surrounds her in Israel; Malik''s niece, whose wedding and life are shattered by the murder; her fiancé, a peacenik whose existence is complicated by the fact that his cousin is high up in the Hamas command; religious leaders on both sides; corrupt Israeli cops; Palestinians thirsting for violence against Israel; Israelis determined to crush the Palestinians. Lawrence Wright brings a wide and complicated tapestry to life, one that culminates on October 7, 2023, with the deadly Hamas attack on Israel. But he has written more than just a thriller, or even just an examination of all these complicated lives. He has written a novel that manages to explore and explain much of the devastating history that encompasses the relationship between Israel and Palestine—and shows it to us in a way that poignantly reveals the tragic human scale that is involved.

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author, a hilarious, sharply drawn send-up of local politics • A novel about a dark-horse candidate who risks his personal happiness for a career in the Texas House of Representatives • "Required reading in these politically turbulent times.”—Susan Orlean, author of On Animals “A rollicking satire . . ."— Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review Sonny Lamb is an affable, if floundering, rancher with the unfortunate habit of becoming a punchline in his Texas hometown. Most recently, to everyone’s headshaking amusement, he bought his own bull at an auction. But when a fire breaks out at a neighbor’s farm, Sonny makes headlines in another way: not waiting for help, he bolts to the farm where his heroic actions make the evening news. Almost immediately, and seemingly out of nowhere, a handsomely dressed lobbyist from Austin arrives at his ranch door and asks if he’d like to run for his West Texas district’s seat in the state legislature. Though Sonny has zero experience and doesn’t consider himself political at all, the fate of his ranch—and perhaps his marriage to the lovely “cowgirl” Lola—hangs in the balance. With seemingly no other choice, Sonny decides to throw his hat in the ring . As he navigates life in politics—from running a campaign to negotiating in the capitol—Sonny must learn the ropes, weighing his own ethics and environmental concerns against the pressures of veteran politicians, savvy lobbyists, and his own party. In tracing Sonny’s attempt to balance his marriage and morality with an increasingly volatile professional life, Lawrence Wright has crafted an irresistibly funny and clever roller-coaster ride about one man’s pursuit of goodness in the Lonestar State.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19—its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it "A book of panoramic breadth ... managing to surprise us about even those episodes we … thought we knew well … [With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright’s storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive.” —The New York Times Book Review From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U.S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger’s early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway’s darkened theaters and Austin’s struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function—with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who’ve risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

Un thriller médico escrito antes de la pandemia sobre la llegada de un virus letal que arrasa con la población mundial, de la mano del ganador del Premio Pulitzer, Lawrence Wright. Cuando el epidemiólogo Henry Parsons viaja hasta un campo de refugiados de Indonesia, donde han muerto varios cooperantes en circunstancias muy extrañas para investigar el posible brote de una enfermedad desconocida, no sabe que va a encontrarse con un virus letal capaz de aniquilar la vida en el planeta. Mientras la enfermedad avanza irremisiblemente, Parsons viajará de Indonesia a La Meca tras las huellas de uno de los portadores del virus y de ahí a Arabia Saudí en una desesperada carrera para frenar la pandemia en la que gobiernos, farmacéuticas y asociaciones de todo tipo tratan de arañar el poder en medio del caos y con la esperanza de regresar a su hogar junto a Jill, su esposa, y a sus dos hijos. Este profético thriller confirma que la ficción, muchas veces, se acerca de manera escalofriante a la realidad del mundo en el que vivimos. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION “An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller.” —New York Post “Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and how they work, and dark notes about global warming, the book produces deep shudders . . . A disturbing, eerily timed novel.” —Kirkus Reviews “A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton. In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research, he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus.” —Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone “This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry''s wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

Toute ressemblance avec des faits réels... En Asie, 47 personnes succombent à une fièvre mystérieuse. Envoyé sur place par l''OMS, Henry Parsons, épidémiologiste de renom, découvre à quel point le virus est contagieux. Lorsqu''il apprend qu''un homme contaminé est en route vers La Mecque, où des millions de musulmans vont être rassemblés pour le pèlerinage annuel, c''est le début d''une course contre la montre pour enrayer l''épidémie. Mais, en quelques semaines seulement, le monde entier est touché et sombre dans une crise sans précédent. La maladie se propage, mettant à mal les institutions scientifiques, religieuses et politiques, et décimant une partie de la population. Trouvera-t-on la solution à temps ? Électrisant, hallucinant et, en un sens, historique, ce thriller hors norme, qui rappelle les meilleurs ouvrages de Michael Crichton, nous propose une expérience peu commune. Conçu comme un roman d''anticipation, il a cessé d''en être un au moment même de sa parution, prenant ainsi une étrange allure prophétique. En plus d''une intrigue d''une efficacité et d''un réalisme saisissants, Lawrence Wright, prix Pulitzer, nous offre ici une exploration fascinante des épidémies, de leur histoire et de leur prévention. Ridley Scott travaille actuellement à l''adaptation cinématographique de Contagion. " Prophétique ! ", L''Express

"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Copyright page.

La exploración de uno de los estados más controvertidos de Norteamérica desde la penetrante mirada y el humor de un nativo. Las botas, las camionetas, las armas, la actitud... El estado de la Estrella Solitaria está definido por una serie de estereotipos que suelen constituir en su conjunto una farsa. De esencia tradicionalmente republicana, conocido en todo el mundo por su industria petrolera y su vinculación a la Asociación Nacional del Rifle, Texas es también uno de los territorios más diversos de la nación estadounidense. Las grandes ciudades, cuyas minorías ya conforman grandes grupos étnicos, son de mayoría demócrata y en pocos años el estado ha logrado superar a California en exportaciones tecnológicas. Sin embargo, muchos son los que afirman que Texas es responsable de propugnar la cultura política de Donald Trump. En una insuperable mezcla de crónica periodística, clase magistral de historia y memorias personales, el Pulitzer Lawrence Wright nos ofrece un profundo retrato del que posiblemente es uno de los estados más controvertidos y complejos de Estados Unidos. En estas páginas, no solo se describe el corazón de Trumpland, sino que también se nos muestra una faceta oculta que puede darnos las claves para entender el futuro que se está escribiendo en el seno de la sociedad norteamericana. Reseñas: «Magnífico, el trabajo más personal de Wright hasta la fecha. Es una elegante mezcla de autobiografía y crónica periodística, libre de prejuicios elitistas por un lado y pronunciamientos concisos por el otro.» The New York Times Book Review «Convincente y oportuno. Hay un gigante dormido en Texas y Wright logra capturar tanto la frustración como la esperanza que invaden al estado cada vez que este hace el más mínimo movimiento.» The Washington Post «Fascinante. Sea cual sea tu opinión sobre el estado de Texas, en estas páginas seguro que encontrarás un libro ameno e informativo que habla de un lugar peculiar como no hay otro en la Tierra.» New York Journal of Books «Wright es un escritor texano, un anecdotista que, aunque deambula por sus textos especificando solo ocasionalmente dónde quiere ir a parar, siempre conduce al lector a su destino. En su voz se identifica a un verdadero escritor neoyorquino y, en su prosa, una informalidad pulcra y agradable.» The Guardian «Su gran sensibilidad se adecúa perfectamente al tema de su última obra y le ayuda a capturar una imagen de Texas al completo, en su suerte y su desgracia.» The New York Times

No Marketing Blurb

Questa è una storia che tutti credono di conoscere, e che invece nessuno, prima di Lawrence Wright, aveva raccontato. Parla di un saudita non poi così ricco, né così carismatico, né così brillante, che l’incontro con un medico egiziano ha trasformato nell’immagine stessa del terrore globale; di una vicenda ormai molto lunga, nata alla lettera dalle pagine che il padre fondatore del jihad moderno, Sayyid Qutb, scrisse dopo il suo soggiorno americano negli anni Quaranta; di un progetto vagheggiato fra i campi di al-Qaeda in Sudan e le montagne afghane, e a lungo ritenuto irrealizzabile; dei sospetti che il complicato reticolo di mosse destinato a realizzarlo ha suscitato nell’investigatore più spregiudicato e tenace dell’FBI, John O’Neill; della frenetica corsa contro il tempo di O’Neill per impedire un attentato che poteva essere impedito; della sua sconfitta, e della sua beffarda morte proprio nel crollo delle Torri Gemelle. Di tutto questo, e di innumerevoli altre vicende e figure altrettanto appassionanti, è intessuta la scrupolosa, illuminante ricostruzione di Wright – dove per la prima volta vediamo quelli che fin qui erano solo nomi assumere un volto, muoversi, parlare.

Ganador del premio Pulitzer por La torre elevada, Lawrence Wright es considerado uno de los periodistas más prestigiosos en temas de terrorismo y Oriente Medio. Los reportajes reunidos en Los años del terror buscan dar explicación a la metamorfosis y la expansión de al-Qaeda desde sus orígenes en los años noventa hasta nuestros días, con el surgimiento del Estado Islámico. Desde el indeleble recuento de su estancia por Arabia Saudí, pasando por la industria cinematográfica siria, el conflicto de Gaza, y un devastador artículo sobre la captura y las ejecuciones de los cuatro periodistas y cooperadores internacionales en manos del Estado Islámico y el estrepitoso fracaso de las democracias occidentales, en particular de Estados Unidos para hacer frente al conflicto que asola Oriente Medio, el lector se ve embarcado en una inquietante travesía por el mundo de la violencia yihadista, convirtiéndose en observador de perpetradores, cabecillas, lobos solitarios, víctimas y enemigos. Reseñas: «Wright entreteje sus investigaciones en un sutil tapiz de experiencias personales y sensatas reflexiones.» James Traub, The New York Times Book Review «Fascinante[...] este libro llamará la atención de todos los lectores interesados en los orígenes y posterior desarrollo de los movimientos terroristas.» Library Journal «Uno de los periodistas más lúcidos nos ayuda de nuevo a comprender el extremismo islámico y la reacción occidental.» Ahmed Rashid, The New York Times «Un prosa clara e incisiva [...] Cada reportaje es una mina de informacióncondensada.» USA Today «Esto es reportaje de alto nivel. Lawrence Wright hace recuento de sus investigaciones con prosa cristalina sin perder su propio compás moral.» Max Boot, The Wall Street JournalENGLISH DESCRIPTION With the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. Here, in ten powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker, he recalls the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, from the rise of al-Qaeda in the 1990s to the recent beheadings of reporters and aid workers by ISIS. The Terror Years draws on several articles he wrote while researching The Looming Tower, as well as many that he’s written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread. They include a portrait of the "man behind bin Laden," Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the tumultuous Egypt he helped spawn; an indelible impression of Saudi Arabia, a kingdom of silence under the control of the religious police; the Syrian film industry, at the time compliant at the edges but already exuding a feeling of the barely masked fury that erupted into civil war; the 2006–11 Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, a study in the disparate value of human lives. Other chapters examine al-Qaeda as it forms a master plan for its future, experiences a rebellion from within the organization, and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. The American response is covered in profiles of two FBI agents and the head of the intelligence community. The book ends with a devastating piece about the capture and slaying by ISIS of four American journalists and aid workers, and our government’s failed response.On the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, The Terror Years is at once a unifying recollection of the roots of contemporary Middle Eastern terrorism, a study of how it has grown and metastasized, and, in the scary and moving epilogue, a cautionary tale of where terrorism might take us yet.

Per molti anni, la guerra al terrorismo islamico è stata la caccia a un fantasma che aveva il volto e il nome di Osama bin Laden. Poi un giorno, all''improvviso, quel fantasma è stato ucciso, e il suo corpo scaraventato nell''Oceano Indiano. Ma mentre dagli abissi quel volto e quel nome continuavano a perseguitarci, nelle nostre città, nelle nostre strade, i fantasmi sono diventati legioni: colpiscono e, che vengano o no identificati, subito tornano nel nulla da cui sono emersi. Pochissimi li hanno incontrati da vicino, e in ogni caso nessuno sembra conoscerli come Lawrence Wright. Durante le ricerche che lo hanno portato a scrivere quella che a tutt''oggi rimane la ricostruzione più accurata della nascita di al-Qaeda, "Le altissime torri", Wright ha messo insieme i dieci ampi reportage che compongono questo libro. Sono dieci indagini su storie e personaggi – i piani a lungo termine di al- Qaeda, i metodi con cui due agenti dell''FBI tentano di ostacolarli, le prime esecuzioni in diretta web dell''ISIS – che, semplicemente, nessuno avrebbe saputo raccontare meglio di Wright. Ma sono altrettante dimostrazioni di come la mente del reporter investigativo, a differenza di molte altre, cerchi i sintomi di una malattia dove meno si penserebbe di trovarli. Ad esempio, come Wright qui, in una cronaca dall''interno della Hollywood siriana, tenacemente impegnata a fabbricare sogni a poche settimane dall''inizio di un incubo – la guerra civile senza fine che ancora si sta combattendo.

Ganador del premio Pulitzer por La torre elevada, Lawrence Wright es considerado uno de los periodistas más prestigiosos en temas de terrorismo y Oriente Medio. Los reportajes reunidos en Los años del terror buscan dar explicación a la metamorfosis y la expansión de al-Qaeda desde sus orígenes en los años noventa hasta nuestros días, con el surgimiento del Estado Islámico. Desde el indeleble recuento de su estancia por Arabia Saudí, pasando por la industria cinematográfica siria, el conflicto de Gaza, y un devastador artículo sobre la captura y las ejecuciones de los cuatro periodistas y cooperadores internacionales en manos del Estado Islámico y el estrepitoso fracaso de las democracias occidentales, en particular de Estados Unidos para hacer frente al conflicto que asola Oriente Medio, el lector se ve embarcado en una inquietante travesía por el mundo de la violencia yihadista, convirtiéndose en observador de perpetradores, cabecillas, lobos solitarios, víctimas y enemigos. Reseñas: «Wright entreteje sus investigaciones en un sutil tapiz de experiencias personales y sensatas reflexiones.» James Traub, The New York Times Book Review «Fascinante[...] este libro llamará la atención de todos los lectores interesados en los orígenes y posterior desarrollo de los movimientos terroristas.» Library Journal «Uno de los periodistas más lúcidos nos ayuda de nuevo a comprender el extremismo islámico y la reacción occidental.» Ahmed Rashid, The New York Times «Un prosa clara e incisiva [...] Cada reportaje es una mina de informacióncondensada.» USA Today «Esto es reportaje de alto nivel. Lawrence Wright hace recuento de sus investigaciones con prosa cristalina sin perder su propio compás moral.» Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal

Originally published in 1983, this book is about the way we see things – or think we do, which is by no means the same – and about the ways in which we have tried to reproduce that visual concept in diagrams, pictures, photographs, films and television. Whatever the medium, if any degree of realism is intended, some use of perspective is inevitable, and some understanding of it can aid the appreciation of the result. But here the technicalities of perspective geometry are treated as far as possible non-technically, by a common-sense approach. Students, would-be artists or architects, are warned in the Preface that they will travel second-class in the author’s train of thought (the ‘general reader’ coming first), but they may well find the journey worthwhile in that it provides a background to a subsequent, more detailed studies. Lawrence Wright shows that every form of perspective representation has some innate falsity, but that most such forms offer an adequate makeshift; that rules of geometry often need to be bent; that labour-saving dodges and shortcuts exist. As he says, perspective drawing, like politics, is an art of the possible. In reading this book, beginners may find it all simpler than they had supposed, though the established expert may in some interesting respects find just the opposite. The general reader may thereafter find himself seeing things – and representations of them – in a new light.

In dreizehn fesselnden Kapiteln zeichnet der Pulitzer-Preisträger Lawrence Wright eine der Sternstunden der Diplomatie nach. Leicht war es nicht für die drei großen Staatslenker: Mal schrien sie sich an, mal wollten sie einfach nur noch gehen. Doch sie blieben: Menachem Begin, der orthodoxe Jude, dessen Eltern im Holocaust umgekommen waren, Anwar el Sadat, der fromme Muslim, und Jimmy Carter, der die Bibel auswendig kannte. Am 17. September 1978 unterschrieben sie den Friedensplan. Doch was hatte sie, die lebenslangen Feinde, veranlasst, sich schließlich doch zu vertrauen? Wright, der erstmals Zugang zu geheimen CIA-Quellen und Akten des US-Präsidenten erhielt, erzählt einfühlsam, wie brüchig die Verhandlungen am Anfang waren und wie das politische Geschick und die eigene Biographie der drei außergewöhnlichen Persönlichkeiten diesem Frieden Halt und Zukunft zu geben vermochten - bis heute. Ein Buch, das auf eindrucksvolle Weise zeigt: Frieden ist möglich im Heiligen Land!

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower—and “one of the most lucid writers on the subject of Islamic extremism” (The New York Review of Books)—come ten powerful investigative pieces, an essential primer on jihadist movements in the Middle East and the attempts of the West to contain them. In these pages, Lawrence Wright examines al-Qaeda as it experiences a rebellion from within and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. He shows us the Syrian film industry before the civil war—compliant at the edges but already exuding a barely masked fury. He gives us the heart-wrenching story of American children kidnapped by ISIS—and Atlantic publisher David Bradley’s efforts to secure their release. And he details the roles of key FBI figures John O’Neill and his talented protégé Ali Soufan in fighting terrorism. In a moving epilogue, Wright shares his predictions for the future. Rigorous, clear-eyed, and compassionate, The Terror Years illuminates the complex human players on all sides of a devastating conflict. These essays were first published in The New Yorker.

Acquistando per due dollari un libro, offertogli per strada da un giovane entusiasta un giorno del 1975, Paul Haggis ancora non sa che l''affiliazione casuale, e all''inizio piuttosto scettica, alla Chiesa di Scientology segnerà la sua carriera di regista, trasformandosi via via in un inferno personale e professionale. Quando, molti anni dopo, Haggis riuscirà finalmente a uscirne, racconterà tutto a Lawrence Wright, che in questa superba inchiesta racconta (per la prima volta) tutto a noi: le violenze, i ricatti, le estorsioni cui Scientology sottopone i suoi affiliati; le figure più grandi del vero, e per molti versi mostruose – David Miscavige, attuale guru della Chiesa, e Tom Cruise, suo principale testimonial –, che la tengono in vita; le grottesche procedure private (come le sedute di auditing, un improbabile incrocio fra la parodia di una seduta di analisi e quella di un colloquio aziendale) in cui si articola la lunga iniziazione dell''adepto, e le fantasmagoriche cerimonie pubbliche che celebrano i trionfi della setta più vasta mai apparsa sul pianeta. Ma dove Lawrence Wright scatena fino in fondo la sua straordinaria vena narrativa è nel ritratto dell''inventore di tutto questo, Ron Hubbard, un uomo impegnato fin dalla giovinezza a falsificare la sua stessa biografia, capace di vendere milioni di copie dei suoi romanzi di fantascienza, e naturalmente dei suoi manuali parareligiosi, e perfettamente a suo agio nella divisa di commodoro della flotta privata su cui Scientology, bandita per reati fiscali dal consesso delle nazioni civili, fu costretta per anni ad autosegregarsi. Ma soprattutto in grado di convincere centinaia di migliaia di seguaci che il nostro mondo è governato da un''occulta cricca di psichiatri malvagi, i quali «operano secondo metodi tratti direttamente dai manuali per terroristi»: e che l''unico modo per sconfiggerli è versare, a lui stesso e alla sua ristretta cerchia, donazioni sempre più consistenti.

Deux personnages sont au coeur de l''enquête minutieuse que Lawrence Wright a menée pour écrire ce livre fascinant : le très inquiétant mais brillant auteur de science-fiction L. Ron Hubbard, dont l''imagination bouillonnante a accouché d''une nouvelle religion, et son successeur, David Miscavige, un homme rigoureux et déterminé qui eut la lourde tâche de poursuivre son oeuvre. Le lecteur est invité, médusé, à pénétrer au coeur d''une cosmologie délirante et de son langage très particulier. Il découvre la vie rocambolesque et captivante de son fondateur. Il suit le long combat juridique mené par l''administration fiscale américaine contre l''Eglise et ses richesses phénoménales. Il apprend comment et pourquoi elle courtise les célébrités telles que Tom Cruise ou John Travolta en même temps qu''elle relègue son bas clergé aux travaux forcés en vertu de " contrats " conclus pour des milliards d''années. Soigneusement documenté et rédigé dans un style limpide et narratif, Devenir Clair permet de pénétrer au coeur d''une des organisations actuelles les plus secrètes.

Veinte años después del 11-S, y diez de la muerte de Osama bin Laden, La torre elevada sigue siendo la mejor obra escrito sobre el auge del fundamentalismo islámico, la creación de al-Qaeda y los fallos de los servicios de inteligencia que culminaron en el atentado de las Torres Gemelas. Obra ganadora del Premio Pulitzer. «Literatura como verdad.» Antonio Muñoz Molina La torre elevada narra la increíble historia de varios hombres cuyos destinos se entrecruzan y confluyen de forma dramática el 11 de septiembre de 2001. Con una precisión poco común, sustentada en más de quinientas entrevistas realizadas a lo largo de cinco años, nos describe el auge del fundamentalismo islámico, la creación de al-Qaeda y los errores cometidos por los confiados servicios de inteligencia que culminaron en el atentado de las Torres Gemelas. Lawrence Wright recrea de modo excepcional la transformación de Osama bin Laden y Ayman al-Zawahiri de combatientes idealistas e incompetentes en Afganistán a líderes del grupo terrorista más temido de la historia; y sigue de cerca a John O''Neil, jefe de la sección de contraterrorismo del FBI y uno de los pocos agentes estadounidenses que comprendió, ya en los años noventa, la magnitud de la amenaza que representaba dicha organización. Lleno de información, con una profunda perspectiva histórica, este es el mejor libro escrito sobre los orígenes de al-Qaeda y la muerte de Bin-Laden. Críticas: «El libro del año.» John Le Carré «Ganó el Premio Pulitzer. Su fuerza tremenda reside en el relato de los hechos y de sus orígenes, de los procesos mediante los cuales hombres corrientes eligen matar y morir en nombre de delirios arcaicos; y de cómo las ideas más dementes llegan a convertirse paso a paso en actos que cambian el curso del mundo y que podían haberse evitado.» Antonio Muñoz Molina « La torre elevada es el mejor libro que se ha escrito sobre Bin Laden, su relación con al-Zawahiri y el 11-S.» El País

A dramatic, illuminating day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David conference, when President Jimmy Carter convinced Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to sign a peace treaty--the first treaty in the modern Middle East, and one which endures to this day. With his hallmark insight into the forces at play in the Middle East and his acclaimed journalistic skill, Lawrence Wright takes us through each of the thirteen days of the Camp David conference, delving deeply into the issues and enmities between the two nations, explaining the relevant background to the conflict and to all the major participants at the conference, from the three heads of state to their mostly well-known seconds working furiously behind the scenes. What emerges is not what we''ve come to think of as an unprecedented yet "simple" peace. Rather, Wright reveals the full extent of Carter''s persistence in pushing peace forward, the extraordinary way in which the participants at the conference--many of them lifelong enemies--attained it, and the profound difficulties inherent in the process and its outcome, not the least of which has been the still unsettled struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In Thirteen Days in September, Wright gives us a gripping work of history and reportage that provides an inside view of how peace is made.

The war to end all wars has finally culminated in a showdown of the world''s military heavyweights. None of that matters to a young schoolboy from Australia. Until it does.

An up-close account of the experience of inner city New York kids—black and Latino, from ghettos and projects—who spent a summer in an Amish and Mennonite farm community in Central Pennsylvania in the late 1970s, sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund. City Chidren, Country Summer follows these children as they navigate two very different worlds, from Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

El Premio Pulitzer Lawrence Wright realiza una extraordinaria investigación sobre la Iglesia de la Cienciología, una de las organizaciones más poderosas y cuestionadas del mundo. ¿Qué se esconde detrás de la iglesia de la Cienciología? ¿Cómo ha logrado convertirse en una de las organizaciones más ricas y poderosas del planeta? ¿Por qué estrellas como Tom Cruise y John Travolta son fieles devotos de una de las organizaciones más criticadas del mundo? Lawrence Wright, premio Pulitzer por La torre elevada, y uno de los grandes periodistas de investigación del mundo, ofrece respuestas a estas y a otras muchas preguntas, y nos desvela la historia y la complicada cosmología de una organización tan intrigante como poderosa que ha conseguido captar a ricos y famosos y ha sabido utilizarlos para alcanzar sus objetivos. A través de un trabajo de investigación sin precedentes sobre una de las instituciones más opacas y secretistas que existen, Wright reflexiona sobre qué convierte un culto cualquiera en una religión, y sobre por qué los seres humanos eligen unas creencias sobre otras. Una historia apasionante que aborda el atractivo de la fe extrema y el coste de abandonarla. Reseñas: «Una historia completamente necesaria... un reportaje sobresaliente. La historia de la Cienciología es la gran ballena blanca de la investigación periodística sobre religión.» The Wall Street Journal «Un libro poderoso... una lectura esencial.» The New York Times Book Review «¿Quién podría pensar que la historia de una religión ofrecería tantos placeres culpables? El cautivador relato del ascenso de la Cienciología se completa con la historia de los escándalos de los famosos. Todos los interesados en los rumores de Hollywood disfrutarán con los capítulos de Tom Cruise y John Travolta.» Los Angeles Times «Lawrence Wright ofrece una investigación lúcida y valiente de la Cienciología -su historia, teología, su jerarquía- y el resultado es la evidencia de que la realidad puede superar la ficción.» The Washington Post

In this fascinating work of historical fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright captures all the gripping drama and black humor of Panama during the final, nerve-racking days of its legendary dictator, Manuel Antonio Noriega. It is Christmas 1989, and Tony Noriega''s demons are finally beginning to catch up with him. A former friend of President Bush, Fidel Castro, and Oliver North, this universally reviled strongman is on the run from the U.S. Congress, the Justice Department, the Colombian mob, and a host of political rivals. In his desperation, he seeks salvation from any and all quarters -- God, Satan, a voodoo priest, even the spirits of his murdered enemies. But with a million-dollar price on his head and 20,000 American soldiers on his trail, Noriega is fast running out of options. Drawn from a historical record more dramatic than even the most artful spy novel, God''s Favorite is a riveting and darkly comic fictional account of the events that occurred in Panama from 1985 to the dictator''s capture in 1989. With an award-winning journalist''s eye for detail, Lawrence Wright leads the reader toward a dramatic face-off in the Vatican embassy, where Noriega confronts his psychological match in the papal nuncio.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower comes “an utterly necessary story” (The Wall Street Journal) that pulls back the curtain on the church of Scientology: one of the most secretive organizations at work today. • The Basis for the HBO Documentary. Scientology presents itself as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment, but its practices have long been shrouded in mystery. Now Lawrence Wright—armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—uncovers the inner workings of the church. We meet founder L. Ron Hubbard, the highly imaginative but mentally troubled science-fiction writer, and his tough, driven successor, David Miscavige. We go inside their specialized cosmology and language. We learn about the church’s legal attacks on the IRS, its vindictive treatment of critics, and its phenomenal wealth. We see the church court celebrities such as Tom Cruise while consigning its clergy to hard labor under billion-year contracts. Through it all, Wright asks what fundamentally comprises a religion, and if Scientology in fact merits this Constitutionally-protected label.

National Book Award Finalist The enhanced eBook edition of Lawrence Wright’s revelatory study of Scientology includes additional photographs and documents, plus more than thirty minutes of original video—taped interviews with former members of the church speaking about what drew them to Scientology and about discovering past lives, the church’s position on abortion and homosexuality, and how the Guardian’s Office functions; and in interviews with the author, Lawrence Wright speaks about his aims in writing this book, his respect for his sources, and methods of research. A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—both famous and less well known—and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology. At the book’s center, two men whom Wright brings vividly to life, showing how they have made Scientology what it is today: The darkly brilliant science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, whose restless, expansive mind invented a new religion. And his successor, David Miscavige—tough and driven, with the unenviable task of preserving the church after the death of Hubbard. We learn about Scientology’s complicated cosmology and special language. We see the ways in which the church pursues celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and how such stars are used to advance the church’s goals. And we meet the young idealists who have joined the Sea Org, the church’s clergy, signing up with a billion-year contract. In Going Clear, Wright examines what fundamentally makes a religion a religion, and whether Scientology is, in fact, deserving of this constitutional protection. Employing all his exceptional journalistic skills of observation, understanding, and shaping a story into a compelling narrative, Lawrence Wright has given us an evenhanded yet keenly incisive book that reveals the very essence of what makes Scientology the institution it is.