-
“Remarkable…[Barker] has written an account of her experiences
covering Afghanistan and Pakistan that manages to be hilarious and harrowing,
witty and illuminating, all at the same time.”
— Michiko Kakutani, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the New York Times
-
“Kim Barker gives a
true and amusing picture of hellholes and the reporters on assignment in them.
But she breaks the journo code of silence and reveals a trade secret of the hacks
who cover hellholes: the hell of the holes is that they’re kind of fun.”
— P. J. O’Rourke
-
“The Taliban Shuffle is part war memoir, part
tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker’s biting honesty and wry wit,
manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking.”
— Chicago Tribune
-
“If you’re looking
for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today—from a
resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption
and nepotism—Barker provides a sterling vantage point.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
-
“[An] immensely entertaining memoir.”
— Boston Globe
-
“What you’d hear if
the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews—brilliant
firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than
any foreign policy briefing.”
— Seattle Times
-
“At once funny and
harrowing, insightful and appalling…The Taliban Shuffle will pull
you in so deep that you’ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
-
“The Taliban
Shuffle gives us an insider’s perspective of Afghanistan and
Pakistan—their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning
terrorist groups…With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker
chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years
when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani
governments.”
— The Daily Beast
-
“Politically astute
and clearly influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, Barker provides sharp commentary
on the impotence of American foreign policy in South Asia after the victory
against the Taliban…Fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest.”
— Kirkus Reviews
-
“Brilliant, tender,
and unexpectedly hilarious.”
— Marie Claire
-
“Candid and darkly
comic…With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her
evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
-
“The Taliban Shuffle isn’t like any other
book out there about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s witty, brilliant, and
impossible to put down.”
— Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City
-
“Laugh-out-loud
funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one
of the world’s most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what
is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
— Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda
-
“Yes, there are
bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are
people, human beings even, with appetites—for life, for adventure, for riches,
for love. Ms. Barker offers this world—the human world caught in the crosshairs
of history—with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling
read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline.”
— J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals