Infernal Triangle: Conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Levant: Eyewitness Reports from the September 11 Decade

War correspondent McGeough (In Baghdad: A Reporter’s War) shares his dispatches, observations, and reflections from the front lines as he speaks with perpetrators and victims of suicide bombings, ruthless militia commanders, venal public officials, and civilians whose lives have been shaken by the conflict that surrounds them in the Middle East. Each vignette spans just a few pages, compassionately encapsulating the human dramas like dots in a pointillist portrait—intimately personal and yet inextricably tied to the sweeping arcs of geopolitics. Some, like McGeough’s investigations of Khalid Mishal or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, touch on subjects of great political import, while most draw lessons from the lives of bit players in a cast of half a billion, each beset by the “paranoia, frustration, anger and helplessness [that] gnaw at people who every day become a little less like people.” This relentless parade of tragedies makes for compelling reading, but risks missing the deeper trends affecting the region. (June)