REVIEWS AND PRAISE FOR
FAITH AT WAR:
"Part travel book, part political and cultural commentary, part adventure story and altogether (a) superb, gracefully written guide... Each tile is exquisitely wrought...This book deserves a wide readership.
The Muslims don't understand us, we don't understand them. Faith at War goes a long way toward solving the second part of that dismal equation. " -- Philip Caputo, The New York Times Book Review. July 17, 2005
"Stylishly written, keenly observed dispatches. Trofimov deals in vivid tableaus." -- William Grimes, The New York Times. June 3, 2005
"Yaroslav Trofimov's political travelogue, Faith at War, is an illuminating arrival in this season of fog. Trofimov is an intrepid, Arabic-speaking traveler who moves in landscapes few other Westerners traverse. As a roving foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, he has often produced newspaper stories rich in detail and nuance, and he has established himself as
one of the best in the business. Now he has taken his sweat-stained notebooks and pulled together what he describes as a 'personal account of what's happening on the ground' in the Islamic world. At his best, Trofimov is a master of microcosm. His voice is arch and skeptical -- an itinerant Dashiell Hammett of the Middle East... Trofimov is an entertaining, serious, surprising reporter. It is a pleasure to go with him. Even where I found myself quarrelling with some of Trofimov's analysis, I felt grateful for
his detailed eyewitness accounts and independent point of view. Wherever the road twists next, American readers can only hope that its journalistic travelers include more like Trofimov, who has the language and courage to climb over daunting barriers, to report plainly on what he sees and hears and feels on the other side." -- Steve Coll, Washington Post Book World. May 29, 2005
"Epic tour of the post-9-11 Islamic world." -- Jonathan Gurwitz, San Antonio Express-News. Aug. 3, 2005
"Yaroslav Trofimov documents the chilling rise of militant Islam." -- Jeffrey Kuhner, The Washington Times. Dec 18, 2005
"A book full of bleak stories about the state of America's relationship with the Islamic world. Trofimov is at his best when he pairs his impressive reporting skills with provocative analysis." -- Austin Merrill, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. July 17, 2005
"Thought-provoking... Trofimov describes the convulsive anti-intellectualism, seething anger and violence that afflict many contemporary Islamic societies. One hopes that the dark age Trofimov illuminates today will be replaced by the more peaceful and plural future... " -- Emran Qureshi, The Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 16, 2005
"Sweeping, conversational, literate and interconnected. This narrative speaks to the four years since the 9-11 attack, revealing the
dark conflicts within Islam that foreshadow more and more war ahead. The Bosnia chapter is like a paradoxical premonition." -- John Batchelor, ABC Radio. May 19, 2005
"Showing that Islam is a lot more diverse than most Americans realize, Trofimov puts just the right blend of cultural perspective and personal experience into his tour." -- Publishers Weekly. April 18, 2005
"Trofimov casts a wide net and comes up with gems. This well-written and thought-provoking volume is sure to give researchers and those seeking to understand the nuances of that region's response to the West something to talk about." -- Library Journal. April 1, 2005
"Eye-popping peregrinations in places where people are most likely to succeed in hating Americans -- and in killing us too. Essential for readers walking the minefield of U.S.-Arab relations -- for anyone trying to follow the news." -- Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 2005
"To read Yaroslav Trofimov's dispatches from around the Muslim world in The Wall Street Journal was to find the unexpected, the interesting
and the true. Now he has delivered a beautifully written book that is at once enormously well reported, humane and amusing, even as he takes on such serious subjects as
the deeply flawed occupation of Iraq. I could not recommend it more highly."--Peter Bergen, CNN terrorism analyst, author of Holy War, Inc.
"Yaroslav Trofimov writes in such an eloquent and vivid way that, while reading this fascinating book, we involuntarily travel with its author through the lands of Islam. It is an immensely instructive expedition inside a world that amazes us with its richness, variety, and astonishing paradoxes."--Ryszard Kapuscinski
"Yaroslav Trofimov's Faith at War is not only a breathtaking account of what a sharp-eyed reporter sees, feels and understands under fire and duress while crisscrossing the Muslim world set ablaze by the consequences of 9/11; it is also a great contribution to the intricate relation between faith, war and terror which is at the core of the new century and will be molding the state of world affairs for quite a while. A brilliant narrative, with a vibrant human dimension."--Gilles Kepel, Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies, Institute of Political Studies, Paris; author of The War for Muslim Minds and Jihad
"Faith at War is a clear-eyed and compelling narrative from behind the front lines of the ever escalating conflict between Islam and the West. From Jeddah to Baghdad, from Kabul to Beirut, Trofimov's stories of death, honor, intrigue and war provide a penetrating, nuanced, and necessary antidote to the bland homilies of the nightly news." --Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud
"A landmark book about the crisis of Islam today. Trofimov takes us into a Muslim world as much at war with itself as it is with American cultural hegemony, to places where McDonald's competes with Wahhabi fundamentalism and memory of the Crusades is as fresh as rage over the most recent air strike by American F-18s. His work brings to mind the best of V. S. Naipaul."--Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill
