Mark Bowden is best known for books like Black Hawk Down, inspiration for the 2001 Ridley Scott film about the deaths of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu, and Killing Pablo, about the hunt for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. But Bowden is also a prolific writer of shorter nonfiction pieces for magazines, including Vanity Fair and the Atlantic. In The Three Battles of Wanat: And Other True Stories, Atlantic Monthly Press collects the best of Bowden's articles about war, sports, politics, journalism and more.
The titular Three Battles of Wanat, originally published as "Echoes from a Distant Battlefield" in Vanity Fair, chronicles a 2008 battle in Afghanistan where 200 Taliban fighters attacked a precariously remote U.S. Army base. Nine U.S. soldiers died fending off the assault. This was the first, literal battle of Wanat. Two others followed: the father of a dead platoon leader's fight for justice against what he saw as negligence further up the chain of command, and a colonel's fight to clear his name after a damning reprimand.
In a series of personal profiles, Bowden paints fascinating portraits of figures as diverse as Kim Jong-un, hereditary leader of North Korea, and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., hereditary leader of the New York Times. Of his enthralling sports pieces, "The Hardest Job in Football" stands out for Bowden's ability to capture the controlled chaos behind the scenes of live football broadcasts. Bowden brings engaging clarity and an eye for a good story to every subject. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer