- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan UK (July 9 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1405033894
- ISBN-13: 978-1405033893
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 540 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Reem is twenty, bright and strikingly attractive. Nick is twenty-seven and determined to do what he can to make the world a better place. But when they meet in a fashionable bar it is certainly no accident. For Reem has completed her training as a so-called terrorist - under the tutelage of the mysterious Ustaz, or teacher, and Nicholas Lorimer is her first assignment. It is Nick`s first posting abroad. The UN has sent him to Beirut to help trace thousands of Lebanese missing during the country`s civil war and Nick has what Reem needs; access out of the city`s besieged western sector into the mainly Christian east, and to a notorious rightwing warlord with his sights set on the country`s presidency. The Ustaz wants El-Hami killed before he aligns the Arab country with the United States and Israel, plunging the entire region into turmoil. For Reem, the fight is personal. She has lost her family and home. She volunteers for the ultimate mission - an Operation of Quality. A suicide attack. Nick`s love for Reem explodes the bubble of foreignness that has kept him unscathed by the war. Once he realises the truth, he must choose between Reem and what his contacts at the British embassy insist is his duty.
Fullerton`s third novel is a tough, fast-paced thriller. It is also a moving account of what happens to ordinary people in the face of overwhelming force.
Praise for A HOSTILE PLACE:
`Harsh, cold-eyed thriller, absolutely the antithesis of a flag-waver... Fullerton puts the politics on hold and tells his story with heart, guts and go. A brilliant performance, with a fierce, uncosy intelligence setting off the fireworks`.
Literary Review
About the Author
John Fullerton worked for Reuters in the Middle East for several years. He was Beirut bureau chief during the Lebanon civil war, spent nearly three years in Cairo in the 1980s and was Middle East Diplomatic Correspondent, based in Nicosia.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The training of a suicide bomber in the Middle East, Mar 12 2006
By Rennie Petersen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: This Green Land (Paperback)
This is a very unusual story, and one that is of special interest to all of us who find ourselves shocked and mystified by the mentality of suicide bombers. The events of 11 Sept. 2001, the London Underground bombings in July 2005, and the almost daily suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel makes it important that we try to understand what on earth is going on here.
The story in "This Green Land" (or "Give Me Death" as the hardcover version was called) takes place during the civil war in Lebanon, around 1985 (no exact date is mentioned). There are two main characters: Reem is an attractive young woman from the southernmost part of Lebanon (which became part of Israel) who has lost her home and her entire family. Nick is an idealistic young British man who is working for the United Nations in Lebanon.
Reem and Nick meet in Beirut. For Nick it's love at first sight. For Reem it's something quite different - she's being trained to be a suicide bomber, and she needs Nick in order to be able to gain access to her target.
The story proceeds slowly but surely to an incredible climax. There are many unexpected turns, and many things happen that make us reconsider our prejudices.
John Fullerton's writing style is sure, and he does a very good job of making us understand what was happening in Lebanon at this time, with all of the rival factions and militias, and the terrible breakdown of the functioning of society. We also learn to understand the human emotions involved, and understand why Reem has made her terrible choice.
In fact, Mr. Fullerton is able to make us feel that we are almost involved personally and experiencing what is happening, not just spectators reading a book. He does this through a combination of his up-close writing style and the wealth of nitty-gritty details that are provided. (He worked in Beirut as a journalist during the civil war so he has personal experience with what conditions were like.)
Highly recommended. The lack of the fifth star is mostly due to my feelings that the secondary characters are not as believable as they should be, and that the exact method by which Reem was supposed to detonate the bomb is completely crazy.
Rennie Petersen
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