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Henry Holt and Co.
272 pages
Product Description
<P><B>A gritty, lively, and revelatory look inside the crucial and volatile nation of Pakistan</B></P><P>In <I>To Live or to Perish Forever</I>, Nicholas Schmidle takes readers to Pakistan’s rioting streets, to Taliban camps in the North-West Frontier Province, and on many surprising adventures as he provides a contemporary history of this country long riven by internal conflict. With the intimacy and good humor available only to the most fearless and open-eyed reporters, Schmidle narrates what was arguably the most turbulent period of Pakistan’s recent history, a time when President Pervez Musharraf lost his power and the Taliban found theirs, and when Americans began to realize that Pakistan’s fate is inextricably linked with our own.</P><P>In February 2006 Schmidle had traveled to Pakistan hoping to learn about the place dubbed the most dangerous country in the world.” It was while there that he befriended a radical cleric (who became an enemy of the state and was killed), came to crave the smell of tear gas (because it assured him that he was sufficiently close to the action), and in the end, was deported by the Pakistani authorities, managed to get back into the country, and was chased out a second time. </P> <DIV><DIV><B>Nicholas Schmidle</B> is a fellow at the New America Foundation. He writes for the <I>New York Times Magazine</I>, <I>Slate</I>, <I>The New Republic</I>, <I>Smithsonian</I>, and the <I>Virginia Quarterly Review</I>, among other publications, and received the 2008 Kurt Schork Award for freelance journalism. As a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, he lived and reported in Pakistan for two years. Schmidle is a graduate of James Madison University and American University. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife. <BR></DIV></DIV> <DIV>Nicholas Schmidle beat the Pakistani Army into Taliban country. In October 2007, just weeks before thousands of troops, backed by helicopters and artillery fire, marched into the Swat Valley to battle the gang of Talibs who had taken over the region, Schmidle rode into the town of Mingora on a public bus. He found girls' schools burned down and police stations long since abandoned. He drove through Taliban-manned checkpoints, took a zip line into a militant camp, and witnessed a public lashing. Schmidle had spent the previous two years living in Pakistan, a place dubbed "the most dangerous country in the world." Living off a small fellowship that required only that he stay in Pakistan, learn Urdu, and write about what he witnessed, Schmidle traveled to every corner of the country, ducking intelligence agents in Baluchistan, discussing American professional wrestling with mullahs in Karachi, running from tear gas-lobbing policemen in Islamabad, and avoiding the clutches of burly, jasmine-draped tribesmen in the North-West Frontier Province.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Yet Schmidle's story is far more than just an adrenaline ride through a chaotic country. With the eye of an anthropologist and the mind of a historian, he explains the setting, the characters, and the background to many of the issues dominating headlines todayand those that promise to make news tomorrow. His unrivaled access and personal audacity, moreover, allow readers a thorough look inside Pakistan during a crucial phase in the nation's historyjust as America's longtime ally Pervez Musharraf lost power, and the Taliban gained theirs. With a fresh blend of reportage and analysis, Schmidle weaves his own story into the wider narrative of a nation gripped by social upheaval and radicalization.</DIV> <DIV><DIV>Nicholas Schmidle's portrait of Pakistan is worth more than a whole stack of intelligence reports. From remote Swat to teeming Karachi, he humanizes this labyrinthine countrywhere real danger has grown while the world focused elsewhere. Schmidle's blend of history and travelogue is by turns poignant and terrifying, but always relevant, always engaging, and more urgent now than ever.”<B>Nathaniel Fick, author of the <I>New York Times</I> bestseller <I>One Bullet Away</I></B></DIV></DIV> <DIV><DIV><DIV><P>"If Schmidle has had the grandest of luck in the timing of his book's release, it's luck he earned. Still in his 20s and recently married, he took his young wife on a two-year 'honeymoon' to Pakistan, where he worked as a researcher and part-time journalist. Instead of clinging to the ex-pat community, Schmidle did all he could to insinuate himself into every sector of local lifeincluding extended contacts with radical clerics and members of the Taliban. He went where others were afraid to go, and got the stories others couldn't get. The result is a crucial policy textbook disguised as a page-turner travel memoir. Ranging from Taliban rallies on the Afghan frontier, to the riot-torn slums of Karachi, then into the homes of Pakistan's top political leaders, Schmidle's experiences relied on a rare knack for gaining trust. Of course, it helped that he took pains to learn Urdu, Pakistan's dominant tonguewithout the language, you don't get the deep story. At the book's center lies the oddly respectful relationship the author developed with radical mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who opened doors sealed to other Westerners in the fundamentalist labyrinth. The son of a Marine Corps general, with a brother in the Marines, Schmidle encountered stunning openness about the extremists' goals as he wandered through the madrassahs and mosques that had lured Daniel Pearl to his death."<B>Ralph Peters</B><B>, <I>New York</I></B><B><I> Post </I></B></P>Nicholas Schmidle's portrait of Pakistan is worth more than a whole stack of intelligence reports. From remote Swat to teeming Karachi, he humanizes this labyrinthine countrywhere real danger has grown while the world focused elsewhere. Schmidle's blend of history and travelogue is by turns poignant and terrifying, but always relevant, always engaging, and more urgent now than ever.”<B>Nathaniel Fick, author of the <I>New York Times</I> bestseller <I>One Bullet Away<BR><BR></I></B><I>To Live or to Perish Forever</I> is foreign correspondence of the very best kindthe account of a natural traveler who has the language skills, temerity, and eyesight to arrive where outsiders rarely go and then to report revealingly on what he sees and hears. This is a personal, informative, empathetic, surprising, and entertaining book that illuminates Pakistan, a country of vital interest to the wider world.”<B>Steve Coll, author of <I>Ghost Wars</I> and <I>The Bin Ladens<BR><BR></I></B>Nicholas Schmidle's <I>To Live or to Perish Forever</I> is the perfect primer on post-9/11 Pakistan. Poetically and also sensibly written, the book captures from up close the seminal events of Pakistan's recent history, including the Red Mosque siege and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. From depicting disenfranchised Baluchis to shady ISI officers, Schmidle humanizes what has become the world's most dangerous countryand epicenter of the new Great Game.”<B>Parag Khanna, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation, author of <I>The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order</I></B> <DIV><BR>A riveting read by an intrepid reporter in one of the world’s most dangerous countries. Nicholas Schmidle has written a must-read book to understand turbulent but pivotal Pakistan. He crosses paths with extremists, witnesses flashpoints that transformed regional politics and, most important, makes sense of the complex challenges in south Asia. A marvelous piece of work.”<B>Robin Wright, author of <I>Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East</I></B><BR><BR><DIV>Pakistan is the vital country we can't fix. As the new administration in Washington promises to hurl additional billions of dollars into this foreign-aid black hole, Schmidle's brave and supremely timely book explains why our grand intentions have little hope of success . . . If Schmidle has had the grandest of luck in the timing of his book's release, it's luck he earned. Still in his 20s and recently married, he took his young wife on a two-year 'honeymoon' to Pakistan, where he worked as a researcher and part-time journalist. Instead of clinging to the ex-pat community, Schmidle did all he could to insinuate himself into every sector of local lifeincluding extended contacts with radical clerics and members of the Taliban. He went where others were afraid to go, and got the stories others couldn't get. The result is a crucial policy textbook disguised as a page-turner travel memoir. Ranging from Taliban rallies on the Afghan frontier, to the riot-torn slums of Karachi, then into the homes of Pakistan's top political leaders, Schmidle's experiences relied on a rare knack for gaining trust. Of course, it helped that he took pains to learn Urdu, Pakistan's dominant tonguewithout the language, you don't get the deep story. At the book's center lies the oddly respectful relationship the author developed with radical mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who opened doors sealed to other Westerners in the fundamentalist labyrinth. The son of a Marine Corps general, with a brother in the Marines, Schmidle encountered stunning openness about the extremists' goals as he wandered through the madrassahs and mosques that had lured Daniel Pearl to his death.”<B>Ralph Peters</B><B>, <I>New York</I></B><B><I> Post</I></B> <BR><BR>Compelling and informative . . . If you can hardly figure out what is going on in Pakistan, this book's for you.”<I><B>Military Times<BR><BR></B></I>Offers genuine insight into the travails of a nation ravaged by violence and political instability . . . [A] gripping and readable contribution to understanding the embattled landscape of Pakistan.”<B><I>The Globe and Mail</I> (Toronto)<BR><BR></B><DIV><P>"A clear account of the dystopian politics of Pakistan. Journalist Schmidle arrived in Februa...</div></div></div></div></div></div>