Description:
A work of true crime following one American family's search for answers after a 1984 murder in war-torn Beirut, where the Iranian revolution collided with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, setting off the geopolitical conflagration that burns to this day
On January 18, 1984, Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, was assassinated by a pair of gunmen outside his office. His murder, in the wake of the bombing of the US Marines' barracks, Palestinian guerrilla warfare, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was just one more shocking headline in a city ravaged by the chaos of nine years of war. There was no investigation. Four decades later, the question of who killed Malcolm and why still haunts Kerr's family, including his son Steve, a world-famous basketball player and NBA coach. In The Best Kind of American, Kim Ghattas embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of Kerr's assassination, weaving together the family's story with that of Lebanon's warlords and peacemakers, Hezbollah hostage takers and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and American presidents from Reagan to Trump. She also tells the definitive story of how Beirut came to be the point of origin for the policies and people who went on to shape the Middle East for decades, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was then assassinated in a joint US-Israeli strike in the opening salvo of their 2026 war against the Islamic Republic. With the nuance, clarity, and storytelling that made Black Wave an era-defining work on the Middle East, Ghattas delivers a riveting, deeply human saga--a must-read for understanding why this conflict continues to shape today's world.Brief description: Kim Ghattas is a Middle East expert, author, and Emmy-award-winning journalist. She's a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine, a contributing editor for The Financial Times, and a regular guest on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. She was a Distinguished Inaugural Fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Global Politics. She previously reported for the BBC from the Middle East and Washington, DC. She is the author of Black Wave, a New York Times notable book on the Saudi-Iran rivalry, and of The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, a New York Times bestseller. She splits her time between her hometown in Beirut and writing desks around the world.
Review Quotes:
"By centering her narrative on the murder of Malcolm Kerr, the president of the American University of Beirut, Ghattas has written both a geopolitical whodunit and a masterful investigative history of the forces that have torn apart Lebanon for the past 50 years. The Best Kind of American is not only a riveting book, but a very important one by one of the most astute chroniclers of the modern Middle East."
--Scott Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of King of Kings and Lawrence in Arabia
--Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY's Graduate Center Spellbinding. The book's core is a harrowing account of an American family's tragedy, set against tectonic clashes in the heart of the Middle East. Readers caught up in the search for mysterious assassins will be mesmerized by the larger drama as Lebanon is torn apart by competing gangs of terrorists, religious zealots, warlords, and the governments that secretly backed them. With exquisite reporting and bracing clarity, Ghattas exposes the malevolence, miscalculations, and fanaticism that set the stage for a half-century of destruction and chaos.
--Joby Warrick, author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction "Gripping, authoritative, compassionate and perceptive, The Best Kind of American is a vital contribution to our understanding of the recent history of the Middle East--and of today's conflicts that continue to cause such tragedy and suffering. Ghattas draws on her deep knowledge and understanding of Lebanon, Iran, and the US, to tell an important story with the energy and rigor it deserves. This book should be required reading for scholars and general readers alike."
--Jason Burke, author of The Revolutionists and International Security Correspondent at The Guardian "It's rare to read a book about the complex and fraught recent history of the Middle East and your first reaction is: I can't wait to see the movie version. Kim Ghattas, a masterful writer, brings to life the compelling stories of fascinating, often remarkable people and makes us care about them deeply. A triumph."
--David Rothkopf, author, columnist, and former editor of Foreign Policy "In The Best Kind of American, Ghattas reveals the very worst of the Middle East: the schemes and machinations of leaders determined to cling to power, the impunity surrounding kidnappings and killings, and the shattered lives left in their wake. This is a profoundly brave book--a moving tribute to the forcibly disappeared, and to the enduring grief carried by those who loved them."
--Emma Sky, author of The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq, Director of Yale's International Leadership Center "Ghattas has done incredible research into a painful history that sheds light on the past and illuminates the present. The result is a page turner that unmasks, holds accountable, and humanizes. A true feat!"
--Tarek El-Ariss, author of Water on Fire: A Memoir of War and Chair of Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth "Damning history of American bumbling in the Middle East . . . [a] wide-ranging narrative . . . of great importance to anyone seeking a clear view of a bewildering geopolitical arena."
--Kirkus (*STARRED REVIEW*)