Michael Hastings

The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan

Operators

Twenty-eight centuries separate the birth of the Roman republic from the United States of America in the twenty-first century. To many it would seem that advances in technology and centuries of human experience would insulate our current society from the mistakes of the past. The Echoes of Babylon examines the historical and social tendencies within the world's three great republics. Perhaps not immediately recognized by many, the three republics have a shared experience, as the United States was a former British colony, and Great Britain was once subordinate to the Roman Empire. Whereas history is sometimes considered a dull, dry affair or as an amalgamation of names and dates, in The Echoes of Babylon, history is presented in the context of sequential events, highlighting similar attempts in the direction of human affairs, which have led to similar fates within the world's three greatest republics.

The Echoes of Babylon

"A posthumous debut novel, wry, wise, and outrageous, from award-winning journalist Michael Hastings, based on his experiences working for a National news magazine in the mid-2000s"--

"A novel about the last few months at a magazine modeled after NEWSWEEK"--

a novel

The last magazine

At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek, with a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter. He describes the chaos, the violence, the threats of bomb and mortar attacks, the front lines that can be anywhere. This is a new kind of war: private security companies follow their own rules or lack thereof; soldiers in combat get instant messages from their girlfriends and families. Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air America. A year later, Andi followed Michael to Iraq. Their war-zone romance is another window into life in Baghdad. Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer--a meeting that ends in catastrophe. This is both a raw account of the war and a heartbreaking story of one life lost.--From publisher description.

a modern war story

I lost my love in Baghdad

The inspiration for the upcoming movie WAR MACHINE, starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and Ben Kingsley (streaming on Netflix from 26 May). General Stanley McChrystal, the innovative commander of international and US forces in Afghanistan, was living large. Loyal staff liked to call him a 'rock star'. During a spring 2010 trip across Europe to garner additional Allied help for the war effort, McChrystal was accompanied by journalist Michael Hastings of ROLLING STONE. For days, Hastings looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration for what they saw as a lack of leadership. When Hastings' piece appeared a few months later, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was ordered to Washington, where he was unceremoniously fired. In THE OPERATORS, Hastings gives us a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of Allied military commanders, their high-stakes manoeuvres and often bitter bureaucratic in-fighting. He takes us on patrol missions in the Afghan hinterlands and to hotel bars where spies and expensive hookers participate in nation-building gone awry, drawing back the curtain on a hellish complexity and, he fears, an unwinnable war.

The Operators

Richard Rose

Simon Gray

Jonathan Miller

Eugene O'Neill

Ryszard Kapuściński

David Hare

Ian Weir

Linda Moore

Malcolm Black

Theatre Plus Archives (University of Guelph)

Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand

William R. Brand

Hutchison Shandro

The Illusions and Delusions That Colour Our Lives

With a gun, a typewriter, and a wolf-hound, Annie fires up her junker and embarks on a journey across America seeking a long-lost daughter. At seventy years old, driven mad with guilt, alienated from her family, angry at the world, Annie has little time to make it right. It all happened so fast - the infant ripped from her arms at birth, then hustled away, the forcing of her signature on the adoption papers...Annie aches for her daughter's understanding, forgiveness, and love. What she gets is, redemption. Neurotic, funny, and enduring, Annie Hastings narrates the conflicts she confronts, and at times creates. They must all be conquered and overcome before finding her daughter and facing a truth buried in Annie's past...A birthmother on a mission and an oldster on a mission

The Travels of Annie T. Hastings

A Biography

Sir Richard Burton

On the point of defecting, Alex Orloff, the Russian-born recruiter of Kim Philby, tracks down a double-agent murderer, but finds that Philby--threatening death to Orloff's daughter--holds all the aces

A Spy in Winter

The work-room of a Savile Row tailors, 1953. Two master craftsmen at daggers drawn: Polish-born Spijak insists that nothing can beat the excellence of a hand-sewn suit, while Eric uses his machine to work at twice the speed and earn twice the money. Sparks fly as each fights his own corner with biting wit and vicious humour. Into this battleground steps Maurice, a teenager at the very start of his apprenticeship. Will he survive the gruelling training to become a master tailor? Or will he, as Spijak’s daughter urges him to, escape? The Cutting of the Cloth, drawn so much from Hastings’s youthful experience as an apprentice tailor, has lain in a drawer. Now Two’s Company brings it rampaging on to the stage.

The Cutting of the Cloth

A Play in Three Acts

Don't Destroy Me

The Game

The explosive issue of Vietnam has spawned a breathtaking novel, a thriller that captures all the intrigue and agony of the fateful conflict still on America's mind. The U.S. government is about to bury the Unknown Soldier, but one man questions the Pentagon's priorities and launches his own investigation.

The Unknown Soldier

Three Plays. (Don't Destroy Me. Yes, and After. The World's Baby.).

The Brothers

The “wrenching” (Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show) first book by acclaimed journalist Michael Hastings (1980-2013), whose unflinching Rolling Stone article “Runaway General” ended the military career of General Stanley A. McChrystal. At age twenty-five, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a twenty-first-century reporter -- cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, translators. In startling detail, he describes the chaos, the violence, the never-ending threats of bomb and mortar attacks, the front lines that can be a half mile from the Green Zone, that can be anywhere. This is a new kind of war: private security companies follow their own rules or lack thereof; soldiers in combat get instant messages from their girlfriends and families; members of the Louisiana National Guard watch Katrina's decimation of their city on a TV in the barracks. Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air America. A year into their courtship, Andi followed Michael to Iraq, taking a job with the National Democratic Institute. Their war-zone romance is another window into life in Baghdad. They call each other pet names; they make plans for the future; they fight, usually because each is fearful for the other's safety; and they try to figure out how to get together, when it means putting bodyguards and drivers in jeopardy.Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer -- a meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters that ends in catastrophe. Searing, unflinching, and revelatory, I Lost My Love in Baghdad is both a raw, brave, brilliantly observed account of the war and a heartbreaking story of one life lost to it.

A Modern War Story

I Lost My Love in Baghdad

Michael Hastings

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