American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release
“An astonishing read. What unfolds from the terrifying drama of Micah Garen’s kidnapping by Iraqi militants is a complete surprise: a moving, sympathetic portrait of Iraq and its people struggling against the chaos unleashed by the American liberation. American Hostage explores some of the darkest terrain in the human condition and emerges with hope still beating.”
-Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill
“An incredible tale told with intensity by two very lucky people.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Moving and suspenseful, this account of a journalist’s ordeal as a captive in Iraq recounts the machinations behind a delicate hostage situation…Carleton details the effort’s minute-by-minute reversals and its many risky decisions in crisp, straightforward prose that will soon have readers commiserating with her highs and lows. For his part, Garen recalls his fear, anger and confusion with clarity and immediacy, never demonizing his captors yet never condoning their acts. One of the book’s great pleasures is the description of his friendship with his translator, Amir, an educated, secular Muslim. Even readers who followed the story in the newspapers will find much that is new since so many of the crucial negotiations happened off the front page. And with a romantic subplot humming through the tension, this story is made for the silver screen..”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Garen’s even-handed descriptions of his relationships with his Shiite captors and his interpreter, Amir, lend a richness to his story that makes it far more absorbing than standard media accounts”
-The Washington Post MediaMix
The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: the lost legacy of ancient Mesopotamia
Edited by Angela M. H. Schuster and Milbry Polk, Foreword by Donny George, Introduction by William R. Polk
Includes the essay, “Erasing The Past: Looting of Archaeological Sites in Southern Iraq” by Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton.