The Looming Tower : Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
(Knopf, release date August 8, 2006)
(Penguin, UK release date August 31, 2006)

Awards & Honors:

• Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2007)
• PEN USA Award for Research Nonfiction (2007)
• National Book Award Nominee (2007)
• Lionel Gelber Prize (2007)
• J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize (2007)
• Los Angeles Times Book Festival Award for History (2006)
• Carr P. Collins Award for Nonfiction (2007)
• Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal (2006)
• New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism (2007)

Read an excerpt:

Chapter 1: The Martyr
    In a first-class stateroom on a cruise ship bound for New York from Alexandria, Egypt, a frail, middle-aged writer and educator named Sayyid Qutb experienced a crisis of faith. “Should I go to America as any normal student on a scholarship, who only eats and sleeps, or should I be special?” he wondered. “Should I hold on to my Islamic beliefs, facing the many sinful temptations, or should I indulge those temptations all around me?” It was November 1948. The new world loomed over the horizon, victorious, rich, and free. Behind him was Egypt, in rags and tears. The traveler had never been out of his native country. Nor had he willingly left now. Read more of this excerpt. . .

From the cover of the New York Times Book Review (August 6, 2006)
“This is the story of how a small group of men, with a frightening mix of delusion and calculation, rose from a tormented civilization to mount a catastrophic assault on the world’s mightiest power, and how another group of men and women, convinced that such an attack was on the way, tried desperately to stop it.

“What a story it is. And what a riveting tale Lawrence Wright fashions in this marvelous book. The Looming Tower is not just a detailed, heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and verve and carried along by villains and heros that only a crime novelist could dream up. It’s an education too—though you’d never know it—a thoughtful examination of the world that produced the men who brought us 9/11, and of their progeny who bedevil us today. The portrait of John O’Neill, the driven, demon-ridden F.B.I. agent who worked so frantically to stop Osama bin Laden, only to perish in the attack on the World Trade Center, is worth the price of the book alone. The Looming Tower is a thriller. And it’s a tragedy too…

“Wright, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has put his boots on the ground in the hard places, conducted the interviews and done the sleuthing… He has unearthed an astonishing amount of detail about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawhiri, Mullah Muhammad Omar and all the rest of them. They come alive… O’Neill and others like him were in a race with Al Qaeda, and although we know how the race ended, it’s astonishing—and heartbreaking—to learn how close it was… The fateful struggle between the C.I.A. and F.B.I. in the months leading up to the attacks has been outlined before, but never in such detail… Great stuff.” - Dexter Filkins, Baghdad correspondent

More press:

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times:
“A searing view of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a view that is at once wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping in its historical perspective . . . a narrative history that possesses all the immediacy and emotional power of a novel, an account that indelibly illustrates how the political and the personal, the public and the private were often inextricably intertwined.”

Gary Sick:
“Lawrence Wright provides a graceful and remarkably intimate set of portraits of the people who brought us 9/11. It is a tale of extravagant zealotry and incessant bumbling that would be merely absurd if the consequences were not so grisly.”

Robert A. Caro:
“Lawrence Wright's integrity and diligence as a reporter shine through every page of this riveting narrative.”

Dan Rather:
“A towering achievement. One of the best and more important books of recent years. Lawrence Wright has dug deep into and written well a story every American should know. A masterful combination of reporting and writing.”

Starred Kirkus review:
“Comprehensive and compelling… Wright has written what must be considered a definitive work on the antecedents to 9/11… Essential for an understanding of that dreadful day.”

From the LA Times:
“[A] magisterial, beautifully crafted narrative…” - Daniel Kurtz-Phelan

From the Dallas Morning News:
“If any one book can explain what to some extent is inexplicable… the smart money is on The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Dozens of intricately reported books about the causes of 9/11 are already available in English…. None of the previous books is as well-crafted, in terms of overall organization and narrative writing style.” - Steve Weinberg

From the Houston Chronicle:
“[The] story sparkles with exquisite detail… Lawrence Wright's insightful history comes just in time.” - Ronnie
Crocker

Related media:

Q&A with Author
Featured on Knopf Website

Video Interview about The Looming Tower
Posted January 19, 2006

Slate Book Club
Discussion with Steve Coll
August 8, 2006

Radio Interview on Fresh Air
Aired August 15, 2006

Speech at Miller Center of Public Affairs [Real Media]
September 14, 2006
Video of Lawrence Wright's speech on the origins of al-Qaeda at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, including a public conversation and Q&A.

Video of Town Hall Meeting
October 6, 2006
The second annual New Yorker Town Hall Meeting, with Omar Ahmad, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mahmood Mamdani, Azar Nafisi, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, and Lawrence Wright. George Packer, moderator.

Discussion at UC Berkeley
November 13, 2006
This interview is part of the Institute for International Studies's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas. Hosted by Harry Kreisler.

Interview with Adelphi Publications in Italy
In Italian August 25, 2007

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