The Warlord's Son - Hardcover

A phrase hardly used in Daniel Fesperman's The Warlord's Son is the traditional description of intrigue on the North-west Frontier—"The Great Game". This is not because many of the characters in this timely thriller about real-world politics don't see it as a game, so much as because only a moral idiot could share their perception. The stakes are too high, for one thing; this is a game in which you betray an adversary just for the finesse of the move, and yet betrayal is liable to turn deadly for both victim and traitor.

American journalist Kelly is sick at heart even before he finds himself on the Afghan border, and his interpreter Najeeb tried to walk out on being used years earlier. Both of them are the prisoners of their history. Kelly has his ideal of professionalism to stick to though and Najeeb has a version of loyalty entirely at odds with the honour he learned from his murderous, drug-dealing, back-stabbing father. Both men are dragged into a vicious universe where the romantic love between Najeeb and his upper-class modernising girlfriend Daliya is a genuinely subversive force--this is an exciting book not only because of its fast-paced action, but also because it takes place at the frontier of world-views and passionate caring. --Roz Kaveney

"Mesmerizing. . . . Visceral. . . . Keeps the reader's attention until the stunning climax." --"The Denver Post""A terrific novel of intrigue, duplicity and death in the shadow of the Khyber Pass. . . . Fesperman is that rare journalist who is also a gifted novelist." --"The Washington Post" A thrilling odyssey into Afghanistan during the waning days of Taliban rule . . . a kind of post-modern" Heart of Darkness." --"Seattle Post-Intelligencer" Compulsively readable. . . . Fesperman [is a] writer to watch. --"The Seattle Times""A novel ripped from the headlines. . . . Better than any news dispatch and . . . far more entertaining. . . . Fesperman amazes [with his] searing insights into human nature." --"The Baltimore Sun" A first-rate geopolitical yarn. . . . Fesperman combines his strong eye for detail with bleak film-noir cynicism, managing to make plot twists that could have felt contrived seem depressingly believable. --"Entertainment Weekly" A convincing, accurate thriller. . . . This book is worth reading if only for the passage where the hero, Skelly, glimpses Osama bin Laden at a public hanging; the scene both convinces and frightens. --"The Economist""Thoroughly gripping, intelligent and wholly believable. . . . There will be other novels written about the last days of the Taliban . . . but few will match the verisimilitude, drama and compelling characters found in" The Warlord's Son." . . . The conclusion . . . has the impact of a stun gun." --"Flint Journal" Fesperman s experience as a war correspondent, together with his powers of description and characterization, produce an utterly compelling thriller and quite simply the best I ve read all year. --[writer TK], " Sunday Telegraph""Enlightening and entertaining. . . . A riveting and sometimes frightening read. . . . Fesperman sheds light on the tribal culture in such a way that a murky idea momentarily crystallizes into a vivid picture." --"The Charlotte Observer""[Fesperman] exhibits a keen eye for the landscape's details...he excels at drawing characters." --"Pittsburgh Tribune-Review""[This] veteran reporter. . . . depicts politics, geography and the tradecraft of reporters, smugglers, warriors and spies with rare insight." --"San Jose Mercury News"""The Warlord's Son" is a story of humanity, of how primal instincts come to the forefront in dangerous situations. But it's also about friendship and loyalty and redemption, either achieved or disappointed. . . . One of the must-read novels of the year." --"January Magazine""