The Warlord's Son
by Dan Fesperman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dan FespermanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-20
ISBN: 140003048X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Warlord's Son
Book Review: Top-Notch Suspense
Summary: 5 Stars
Where in the world would you least like to find yourself?
Near the top of my list would be the tribal highlands of northwest Pakistan, home to an assortment local warlords, grudge-bearing Taliban, foreign (read, Al Qaeda) fighters, and a culture that seems straight out of the Middle Ages. Pakistan, the country, is only nominally in control of this piece of real estate.
Yet for Stan Kelly, aka Skelly, a burned-out Midwest-based journalist, a late career foreign assignment in Pakistan offers the promise of escape from his troubled marriage and the endless monotony of small town new briefs around which his life has recently revolved. It recalls a more exciting youth when he was a stringer in some of the world's more dangerous corners. Does he still have what it takes, his personal mid-life crisis seems to be asking.
Najeeb, estranged son of one of these up-country warlords, is persona non grata at home and struggling to eke out a living as a journalist for a small Pakistani daily. He has two things going for him: good English skills as a result of a couple of years studying in North Carolina before his parental estrangement, and he has recently met Daliya, a free-spirited young woman in a country where almost all marriages are arranged. The action starts when Daliya turns up missing about the time a murder occurs outside of Najeeb's apartment.
Who will control Afghanistan? Skelly needs a local `fixer' who can get him overland into Afghanistan to find out, while Najeeb needs a job and knows the territory. Joining the party of an exiled Afghani warlord returning home, Skelly and Najeeb are warned off by a shadowy American who seems to know more than he should. This is Bin Ladin country, of course, and Fesperman is a master at building suspense.
A complex plot moves along quickly and we never quite know whom to trust, although when the tall Arab is finally spotted on horseback at a particularly tense moment, we begin to wonder just how and if Skelly will make it out alive.
Fesperman, a journalist himself at the Baltimore Sun, has written several other suspense adventures set in war zones, and it is surprising that none have yet been brought to the big screen. That would be useful in helping to better develop the characters, the only minor weakness I find in The Warlord's Son. Nevertheless excellent descriptions of an oppressive local culture coupled with a fast pace and surprise ending make this good read. One can just begin to understand how Bin Ladin has managed to evade us for so long.
Lance Durban (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Summary of The Warlord's Son
In a riveting tale of intrigue and betrayal, a journalist and his aide infiltrate Afghanistan on the eve of the American invasion.?Skelly, a jaded war correspondent, is looking for one last scoop.? Najeeb, his translator and guide, is an educated young man from the Pakistani-Afghani border with a secret past, a history with the Pakistani secret police, and his own motives for this risky adventure.?Together they join a Warlord's caravan as he seeks to start an uprising that will liberate the country from the Taliban.?Along the way, they stumble onto what they think might just be the story of a lifetime. What they find is a shady world of hidden agendas, shifting allegiances, and sudden betrayals--a world where one wrong move would get them both killed and the only hope for survival lies in their loyalty to each other.
Dan Fesperson's captivating third novel, The Warlord's Son, begins cinematically with a dusty sunrise in Peshawar, Pakistan, the clamorous calls of competing muezzins, and the buzz of a scooter. In a classic premise worthy of John Le Carre, an aging American war correspondent named Skelly has been sent on what he fears will be--one way or another--his final assignment: the war zone of Afghanistan during the American bombings after 9/11. His ticket into Afghanistan is Najeeb Ajam--an Afghani-born "fixer," a local guide for foreign correspondents, expected to translate the region's languages, arrange passage to difficult areas, and secure introductions to valuable contacts, government clerks, street merchants, warlords. But Ajam is working for higher stakes than his daily cash envelope. His journey with Skelly takes him back to his tribal lands, where he must reckon with the powerful father he left and betrayed years earlier.
Like the works of Graham Greene or Paul Bowles, The Warlord's Son can be read purely for atmosphere, since it beautifully conveys the rigid hierarchies, harsh living conditions, and casual violence of the region. As a thriller, it has some weak points, but Najeem's world is depicted so convincingly that we can allow Fesperson a few liberties with plausibility. --Regina Marler
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