Guests of the Ayatollah: The Inside Story of the Iranian Hostage Crisis

Description

In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini's followers abducted fifty-two American citizens and held them hostage for 444 days. The crisis that followed is a watershed in modern history. Acclaimed author Mark Bowden tells this shocking and unforgettable story through the eyes of the hostages, their Iranian captors and the American special operations soldiers and pilots who tried to end the crisis with one swift, violent strike. Guests of the Ayatollah is the epic account of the first American showdown with Islamist fundamentalism.

Mark Bowden is the bestselling author of Killing Pablo, Finders Keepers and Black Hawk Down, which was made into a successful film by Ridley Scott. He is a national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine.

"YA riveting ... masterfully told tale ... Fans of the author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo will see plenty of classic Bowden here: meticulous reporting backed by a compelling narrative." -- Afshin Molavi "A riveting account ... Altogether excellent--and its revelations of back-channel diplomatic dealings are newsworthy." "Bleakly compelling ... twenty-six years after the Yhostage crisis the passions of the moment still reverberate. In Bowden's book, you can feel them on every page." -- Richard Lacayo "Bowden does a prodigious job, telling an important story ... and barring the unlikely, nobody will ever tell it better." -- Bill Bell "Bowden's mammoth feat of reportage ... is essential reading, A." -- Gilbert Cruz "Daring and masterful ... Bowden's masterpiece hammers home a crucial point: the War on Terror did not begin on 9/11. Rather, the battle had been joined more than two decades earlier, with the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran." -- Ilan Berman "Guests of the Ayatollah is a monumental piece of reportage, deserving a wide readership." -- Philip Caputo "Guests of the Ayatollah may be the most revealing book ever written about desperate hostages on the brink." -- Ike Seamans "Guests of the Ayatollah may be YBowden's most timely and valuable work to date. ... A must read." -- Edward A. Turzanski "Just as he did with his account of the desperate battle that waged between American forces and Islamic fighters in Somalla in Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden takes his readers inside the action--and inaction--inside the hostage crisis in Guests of the Ayatollah." -- Tom Walker "More than twenty-six years later, the siege of the embassy might seem like irrelevant history to those who know little or nothing about it. As talented journalist Mark Bowden shows, the standoff involving fifty-two American hostages is anything but irrelevant." -- Steve Weinberg "Suspenseful, Inspiring, mordant, and, perhaps most of all, affectionate toward those who had to endure such trying circumstances ... Bowden performs a great service by pulling us back in time, to the dawn of an awful age when America was low and radical Islam triumphant." -- Reuel Marc Gerecht