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The Looming Tower
- Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI's counterterrorism chief, John O'Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
As these lives unfold, we see revealed:
- The crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden
- The birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole
- O'Neill's heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers
- Prince Turki's transformation from bin Laden's ally to his enemy
- The failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks
The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; O'Neill's high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal life - he was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others' existence - and the nitty-gritty of turf battles among US intelligence agencies.
Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming Tower draws all elements of the story into a galvanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat.
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- Justin
- 2023-01-15
Absolutely Astounding!
Incredible book - Lawrence does a wonderful job narrating his own work. There are a few points near the end when he nearly gets choked up; you can really feel how much he poured into this work. Can’t recommend it enough.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-07-08
Why an Author Should Not Narrate Their Own Work
This is a brilliantly researched work, providing tremendous insight into the cultural, political, and bureaucratic background that led to 9/11. Unfortunately, I would suggest reading a print version. The author/narrator suffers from a slightly mumbling voice. He stumbles when presented with consecutive consonants and with drawn-out vowel-consonant blends. The word "modernity" is uttered an incalculable number of times in the narration, and always as if with a speech defect. The volume of the author's voice tails off at the end of sentences and tires during each chapter. I found that I had to continually increase the volume as I listened. The production team should have worked more with the author/narrator, and should have employed compression and equalization to make the book carry against the background noise of a vehicle, which is where many people will listen to it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2019-06-27
didn't like it, just could not get into it.
it was very slow going and I could not keep myself interested for any length of time.
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