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In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin Audiobook
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Publisher Description
The inspiring and devastating biography of Marie Colvin, the foremost war reporter of her generation, who was killed in Syria in 2012, and whose life story also forms the basis of the feature film A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as Colvin. When Marie Colvin was killed in an artillery attack in Homs, Syria, in 2012, at age fifty-six, the world lost a fearless and iconoclastic war correspondent who covered the most significant global calamities of her lifetime. In Extremis, written by her fellow reporter Lindsey Hilsum, is a thrilling investigation into Colvin’s epic life and tragic death based on exclusive access to her intimate diaries from age thirteen to her death, interviews with people from every corner of her life, and impeccable research. After growing up in a middle-class Catholic family on Long Island, Colvin studied with the legendary journalist John Hersey at Yale, and eventually started working for The Sunday Times of London, where she gained a reputation for bravery and compassion as she told the stories of victims of the major conflicts of our time. She lost sight in one eye while in Sri Lanka covering the civil war, interviewed Gaddafi and Arafat many times, and repeatedly risked her life covering conflicts in Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, and the Middle East. Colvin lived her personal life in extremis, too: bold, driven, and complex, she was married twice, took many lovers, drank and smoked, and rejected society’s expectations for women. Despite PTSD, she refused to give up reporting. Like her hero Martha Gellhorn, Colvin was committed to bearing witness to the horrifying truths of war, and to shining a light on the profound suffering of ordinary people caught in the midst of conflict. Lindsey Hilsum’s In Extremis is a devastating and revelatory biography of one of the greatest war correspondents of her generation.
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“One of the best biographies I have read about any journalist…What makes the biography and the life on which it is based so impressive is the truly heroic proportions of Colvin’s dedication to getting the story of human beings trapped in war…Hilsum weaves the accomplishments into the personal story.”
— Intercept
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“Colvin never slowed down long enough to write a memoir. Now, thanks to Hilsum’s deeply reported and passionately written book, she has the full accounting that she deserves.”
— New York Times -
“In Extremis is the best biography I’ve read in what seems like ages…Hilsum brilliantly synthesizes it all, separating wheat from chaff and building a portrait of a remarkable and somewhat troubled woman.”
— Minneapolis Star-Tribune -
“A powerful portrait of a woman drawn to danger—and truth.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Succeeds brilliantly in honoring a brave and hugely influential journalist, while allowing the real woman, with all her strength, intelligence, and human frailty, to shine through…Gripping and very moving.”
— National (Scotland)
Awards
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An Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year selection
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Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
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An Amazon Editor’s Top Pick
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A London Guardian Pick of the Month
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
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Among shortlisted titles for Plutarch Awards Nominee, 2018
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About Lindsey Hilsum
Lindsey Hilsum is the international editor for Channel 4 News in England. She has covered many of the major conflicts and international events of the last twenty-five years, including the Rwandan genocide and the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1994 and more recently the Arab Spring in Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, London Sunday Times, Guardian, Observer, and Granta. Her first book, Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution was short-listed for the 2012 Guardian First Book Award.