Stack, M: Every Man in This Village is a Liar

A few weeks after the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre on 9/11, LA Times journalist Megan Stack was thrust into Afghanistan and Pakistan, dodging gunmen and prodding warlords for information. She then travelled to other war ravaged countries of the Middle East including Israel and Libya, witnessing and telling the stories of the changing Muslim world. Stack relates her initial wild excitement and her slow disillusionment as the cost of violence outweighs the elusive promise of freedom and democracy. She reports from under bombardment in Lebanon; records the raw pain of suicide bombings in Israel; and one by one, marks the deaths and disappearance of those she interviews.

Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a deeply human memoir about the wars of the twenty first century. Beautiful, savage and unsettling, it is an indispensible book of our times.