Them: Adventures with Extremists

Description

Them is an eye-opening, outrageously funny exploration of extremism, which makes both author and reader think twice about the looking-glass world of 'us' and 'them' . . . A Sunday Times bestseller and the book that launched Jon Ronson's inimitable career - with an introduction by Russell Brand. My worryingly paradoxical thought process could be summarized thus: Thank God I don't believe in the secret rulers of the world. Imagine what the secret rulers of the world might do to me if I did. What if a tiny, shadow elite rule the world from a secret room? In Them Jon Ronson sets out to find this room, with the help of the extremists - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen - that believe in it. Along the way, he is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and witnesses international CEOs and politicians participate in a bizarre pagan ritual in the forests of northern California. 'This book is chilling and hilarious by turns.' - Independent 'A funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world.' - Louis Theroux, Guardian

Jon Ronson is an award-winning nonfiction writer and documentary maker. He is the author of four bestsellers, Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Psychopath Test and Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries, and two collections, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness. His latest book is the short story Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie. His first fictional screenplay, Frank, co-written with Peter Straughan, has been directed by Lenny Abrahamson and stars Michael Fassbender. He lives in London and New York City.

This book is chilling and hilarious by turns. Ronson's trademark laid-back attitude is a delight. * Independent * A funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world. -- Louis Theroux * Guardian * A funny, superbly controlled account of Ronson's wanderings through the wonderland of fanaticism and delusion . . . The result is high comedy * New Statesman * Often entertaining, more often disturbing . . . Ronson has gotten closer to these people than any journalist I can think of * New York Times * The strength of Ronson's book is that it reminds us not only that extremists are weird but also that their fantasies take sustenance from the real world * Sunday Telegraph *