A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America's Longest War
October 1, 2017
The author considers his time in Afghanistan in 2001 to be the high point of his career in the CIA. The story he tells here (which we suspect is only part of a larger story) begins on September 11, 2001, and ends on December 7, 2001, when Kandahar, the seat of the Taliban, fell to local militia and American forces. There have been numerous conflicting news stories and articles about the fall of Kandahar, and we've all wondered how much of what we've read is fact, how much is speculation, and how much is sheer fantasy. With no apparent political ax to grind, Evans certainly appears to be delivering the unvarnished facts: the gritty, frustrating, brutal, exhilarating truth of what went on at the beginning of the so-called war on terror (although the requirements of national security mean some people and events are slightly altered or incomplete). One thing is certain: Evans, who has also written fiction (North from Calcutta, 2009), is a fine storyteller. This account of a key period in recent American history deserves attention.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)