Home | Lawrence Wright

Author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and named one of Time’s Top 100 Books of all time.
Staff writer for The New Yorker and winner of the 2012 National Magazine Award for his profile of Paul Haggis, the basis of new book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.
“There is no more careful reporter in the world than [Wright], and no one who is as thorough and as indefatigable.”
—Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

Scientology presents itself as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment, but its practices have long been shrouded in mystery. Now Lawrence Wright — armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists — uncovers the inner workings of the church.

We meet founder L. Ron Hubbard, the highly imaginative but mentally troubled science-fiction writer, and his tough, driven successor, David Miscavige. We see the church court celebrities such as Tom Cruise while consigning its clergy to hard labor under billion-year contracts.

Brilliantly researched, compellingly written, Going Clear pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive organizations at work today.

Read an excerpt of Going Clear →

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“Powerful... essential reading.”
—Cover of The New York Times Book Review

“An utterly necessary story.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“Wright brings a clear-eyed, investigative fearlessness to Scientology and the result is a rollicking, if deeply creepy, narrative ride, evidence that truth can be stranger even than science fiction.”
—Washington Post

“The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”

A gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11. More about The Looming Tower →

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“A searing view of the tragic events of September 11, 2001... a narrative history that possesses all the immediacy and emotional power of a novel.”
—Michiko Kakatuni, The New York Times

“Comprehensive and compelling… Wright has written what must be considered a definitive work on the antecedents to 9/11.”
—Starred Kirkus review

“My Trip to Al Qaeda” now available on Netflix streaming

My Trip to Al-Qaeda takes a harrowing tour through the world of Islamic terrorism, as acclaimed author Lawrence Wright strains to understand the roots of hatred and violence that led to 9/11. Based on Wright’s one-man play, itself adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, the film combines elements of first-person narrative with gripping documentary footage.

Stream: Netflix | amazon Purchase: amazon

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

Camp David

“The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”

“My Trip to Al Qaeda” now available on Netflix streaming