Lawrence Wright

Profiles, Essays, and Reflections

A powerful and startling account of the unsparing connection between a convent of cloistered nuns and the condemned women on Texas’s death row, exploring questions around crime and punishment, faith, and retribution in America as only Lawrence Wright can "This unlikely story of a group of nuns in rural Texas ministering to seven women on death row is both captivating and inspiring. Two disparate groups—contemplative nuns and condemned inmates—set aside their pasts, slowly learn to trust one another, and ultimately bond as friends." —John Grisham In the fall of 2014, Deacon Ronnie Lastovica visited a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas and gave communion to the women on death row. Moved by the meeting, the Deacon vowed to return weekly, but he knew he couldn’t help these women alone. He called upon the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a group of contemplative nuns in Waco, Texas, to visit the seven condemned women with him. What follows is an incredible story of a spiritual alliance between two groups of women who, though they couldn''t seem more different, are living uniquely similar lives. Lawrence Wright takes us into the death row unit, laying bare their stories. Some of the women in prison wrestle with guilt over the suffering they’ve caused; others fiercely maintain their innocence. As Wright learns more about their cases, unethical police practices and improper forensic methods cast doubt on whether some of these women actually committed the crimes for which they’ll pay the ultimate price. Clear-eyed and rousing, layered and morally complex, Redemption explores ideas of retribution, spirituality, and the question of absolution.

In this sweeping, timely thriller, a Palestinian American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza--from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and The End of October. "A layered tale of intrigue and betrayal."--Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Horse Tony Malik, a half-Irish, half-Arab FBI agent based in New York, specializes in tracking money from drug and arms deals. His life takes a dramatic turn when a long-term relationship ends and his job hangs in the balance. Amid personal turmoil, Malik becomes intrigued by his Palestinian father's past. He decides to visit his ancestral homeland for his niece's wedding, accepting a seemingly simple FBI assignment along the way. Upon arrival in the West Bank, Malik's world is upended when the Israeli police chief is murdered. Initially a suspect, Malik's investigative prowess soon earns him a place in the Israeli investigation. At the heart of the story is Malik's complex relationship with Yossi, the hardline anti-Arab Israeli police officer leading the case. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side. Lawrence Wright populates the novel with richly drawn characters: Yossi's daughter studying in Paris, Malik's niece whose wedding is shattered by violence, her peacenik fianc with ties to Hamas, and a cast of religious leaders, corrupt cops, and militants on both sides. Through these intersecting lives, Wright weaves an intricate tapestry that culminates in the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. More than a thriller, Wright's novel explores the complex history between Israel and Palestine, revealing the tragic human scale of this long-standing conflict and offering a nuanced perspective on a tragedy that continues to shape the region and the world.

Thirty never-before-collected essays--many of them profiles--by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Looming Tower, Going Clear, and The Plague Year. These brilliant pieces reveal the broad spectrum of Wright's cultural and political observations over the past thirty-five years. Spanning more than thirty-five years of Lawrence Wright's reporting for The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, and other magazines, these pieces remind us what a brilliant observer Wright has been of institutions, of political maneuverings, and of people--dangerous, eccentric, or beloved. Some of the essays included: ORPHANS OF JONESTOWN (1993): A profile of Jim Jones's three sons who, following the Jonestown massacre, were left alone in a society uncomprehending of their experience. A RAPIST'S HOMECOMING (1995): The ethical dilemma of a prison therapist, concerned that her patient--about to be released--could attack again. A LIVING DOLL (1988): A very personal column on how the author relates to his 5-year-old daughter through her toys. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RICHARD BRAUTIGAN (1985): An incisive look at the 1960s and 1970s literary icon. SPACE CADET (1981): How a sanitary engineer combined her expertise and career with her love of space exploration and NASA. THE ELEPHANT IN THE COURTOOM (2022): Should animals have legal rights? And many others: A profile of the great spitball pitcher, Gaylord Perry; a look at how a Pentecostal Texas cattle farmer and an orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem came together over the End of Days; a 2006 essay detailing an attack in Gaza that mirrors the tragedies occurring today; a profile of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; one of Jimmy Carter; and a group of essays that deal with Wright's life as a father. This is an important collection that will demand attention, and a stirring overview of an extraordinary career.

In this sweeping, timely thriller, a Palestinian American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza--from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and The End of October. "A layered tale of intrigue and betrayal."--Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Horse Tony Malik, a half-Irish, half-Arab FBI agent based in New York, specializes in tracking money from drug and arms deals. His life takes a dramatic turn when a long-term relationship ends and his job hangs in the balance. Amid personal turmoil, Malik becomes intrigued by his Palestinian father's past. He decides to visit his ancestral homeland for his niece's wedding, accepting a seemingly simple FBI assignment along the way. Upon arrival in the West Bank, Malik's world is upended when the Israeli police chief is murdered. Initially a suspect, Malik's investigative prowess soon earns him a place in the Israeli investigation. At the heart of the story is Malik's complex relationship with Yossi, the hardline anti-Arab Israeli police officer leading the case. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side. Lawrence Wright populates the novel with richly drawn characters: Yossi's daughter studying in Paris, Malik's niece whose wedding is shattered by violence, her peacenik fianc with ties to Hamas, and a cast of religious leaders, corrupt cops, and militants on both sides. Through these intersecting lives, Wright weaves an intricate tapestry that culminates in the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. More than a thriller, Wright's novel explores the complex history between Israel and Palestine, revealing the tragic human scale of this long-standing conflict and offering a nuanced perspective on a tragedy that continues to shape the region and the world.

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - From the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author, a hilarious, sharply drawn send-up of local politics - A novel about a dark-horse candidate who risks his personal happiness for a career in the Texas House of Representatives - "Required reading in these politically turbulent times."--Susan Orlean, author of On Animals "A rollicking satire . . ."-- Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review Sonny Lamb is an affable, if floundering, rancher with the unfortunate habit of becoming a punchline in his Texas hometown. Most recently, to everyone's headshaking amusement, he bought his own bull at an auction. But when a fire breaks out at a neighbor's farm, Sonny makes headlines in another way: not waiting for help, he bolts to the farm where his heroic actions make the evening news. Almost immediately, and seemingly out of nowhere, a handsomely dressed lobbyist from Austin arrives at his ranch door and asks if he'd like to run for his West Texas district's seat in the state legislature. Though Sonny has zero experience and doesn't consider himself political at all, the fate of his ranch--and perhaps his marriage to the lovely "cowgirl" Lola--hangs in the balance. With seemingly no other choice, Sonny decides to throw his hat in the ring . As he navigates life in politics--from running a campaign to negotiating in the capitol--Sonny must learn the ropes, weighing his own ethics and environmental concerns against the pressures of veteran politicians, savvy lobbyists, and his own party. In tracing Sonny's attempt to balance his marriage and morality with an increasingly volatile professional life, Lawrence Wright has crafted an irresistibly funny and clever roller-coaster ride about one man's pursuit of goodness in the Lonestar State.

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - From the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author, a hilarious, sharply drawn send-up of local politics - A novel about a dark-horse candidate who risks his personal happiness for a career in the Texas House of Representatives - "Required reading in these politically turbulent times."--Susan Orlean, author of On Animals "A rollicking satire . . ."-- Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review Sonny Lamb is an affable, if floundering, rancher with the unfortunate habit of becoming a punchline in his Texas hometown. Most recently, to everyone's headshaking amusement, he bought his own bull at an auction. But when a fire breaks out at a neighbor's farm, Sonny makes headlines in another way: not waiting for help, he bolts to the farm where his heroic actions make the evening news. Almost immediately, and seemingly out of nowhere, a handsomely dressed lobbyist from Austin arrives at his ranch door and asks if he'd like to run for his West Texas district's seat in the state legislature. Though Sonny has zero experience and doesn't consider himself political at all, the fate of his ranch--and perhaps his marriage to the lovely "cowgirl" Lola--hangs in the balance. With seemingly no other choice, Sonny decides to throw his hat in the ring . As he navigates life in politics--from running a campaign to negotiating in the capitol--Sonny must learn the ropes, weighing his own ethics and environmental concerns against the pressures of veteran politicians, savvy lobbyists, and his own party. In tracing Sonny's attempt to balance his marriage and morality with an increasingly volatile professional life, Lawrence Wright has crafted an irresistibly funny and clever roller-coaster ride about one man's pursuit of goodness in the Lonestar State.

'A virtuoso feat ... a book of panoramic breadth' New York Times Book Review'A devastating analysis ... Wright is a master of knitting together complex narratives' The ObserverJust as Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower became the defining account of our century's first devastating event, 9/11, so The Plague Year will become the defining account of the second. The story starts with the initial moments of Covid's appearance in Wuhan and ends with Joseph Biden's inauguration in an America ravaged by well over 400,000 deaths - a mortality already some ten times worse than US combat deaths in the entire Vietnam War. This is an anguished, furious memorial to a year in which all of America's great strengths - its scientific knowledge, its great civic and intellectual institutions, its spirit of voluntarism and community - were brought low, not by a terrifying new illness alone, but by political incompetence and cynicism on a scale for which there has been no precedent. With insight, sympathy, clarity and rage, The Plague Year allows the reader to see the unfolding of this great tragedy, talking with individuals on the front line, bringing together many moving and surprising stories and painting a devastating picture of a country literally and fatally misled.'Maddening and sobering - as comprehensive an account of the first year of the pandemic as we've yet seen' Kirkus

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19--its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it "A book of panoramic breadth ... managing to surprise us about even those episodes we ... thought we knew well ... With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright's storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive." --The New York Times Book Review From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U. S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger's early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway's darkened theaters and Austin's struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function--with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who've risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

Uno de los mejores libros del Siglo XXI seg n el New York Times Veinte a os despu s del 11-S, y diez de la muerte de Osama bin Laden, La torre elevada sigue siendo la mejor obra escrito sobre el auge del fundamentalismo isl mico, la creaci n de al-Qaeda y los fallos de los servicios de inteligencia que culminaron en el atentado de las Torres Gemelas. Obra ganadora del Premio Pulitzer. «Literatura como verdad. --Antonio Mu oz Molina La torre elevada narra la incre ble historia de varios hombres cuyos destinos se entrecruzan y confluyen de forma dram tica el 11 de septiembre de 2001. Con una precisi n poco com n, sustentada en m s de quinientas entrevistas realizadas a lo largo de cinco a os, nos describe el auge del fundamentalismo isl mico, la creaci n de al-Qaeda y los errores cometidos por los confiados servicios de inteligencia que culminaron en el atentado de las Torres Gemelas. Lawrence Wright recrea de modo excepcional la transformaci n de Osama bin Laden y Ayman al-Zawahiri de combatientes idealistas e incompetentes en Afganist n a l deres del grupo terrorista m s temido de la historia; y sigue de cerca a John O'Neil, jefe de la secci n de contraterrorismo del FBI y uno de los pocos agentes estadounidenses que comprendi , ya en los a os noventa, la magnitud de la amenaza que representaba dicha organizaci n. Lleno de informaci n, con una profunda perspectiva hist rica, este es el mejor libro escrito sobre los or genes de al-Qaeda y la muerte de Bin-Laden. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century The Pulitzer Prize winner book that inspired the Hulu series starring Peter Sarsgaard, Jeff Daniels, and Tahar Rahim. A gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O'Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11. National Book Award Finalist Updated and with a New Afterword

Salaperäinen kuume on iskenyt pakolaisleiriin Inodonesiassa jättäen jälkeensä 47 kuollutta ihmistä. Maailman terveysjärjestö WHO lähettää tarttuvien tautien asiantuntijan, tohtori Henry Parsonsin, paikan päälle tutkimaan asiaa. Pian hän löytää leiriltä jotain, joka ravistelee kaikkia maapallon asukkaita. Kansainväliset jännitteet lisääntyvät ja hallitukset ryhtyvät ennennäkemättömiin toimenpiteisiin tilanteen hallitsemiseksi. Henry löytää itsensä juoksemassa kilpaa ajan kanssa päästäkseen viruksen alkuperän jäljille ja löytääkseen parannuskeinon - ennen kuin se on liian myöhäistä. Tappava uhka on tiheätunnelmainen trilleri, jossa virus on saanut koko maailman polvilleen.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19--its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it "A book of panoramic breadth ... managing to surprise us about even those episodes we ... thought we knew well ... With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright's storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive." --The New York Times Book Review From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U. S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger's early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway's darkened theaters and Austin's struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function--with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who've risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

'A virtuoso feat ... a book of panoramic breadth' New York Times Book Review'A devastating analysis ... Wright is a master of knitting together complex narratives' The ObserverJust as Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower became the defining account of our century's first devastating event, 9/11, so The Plague Year will become the defining account of the second. The story starts with the initial moments of Covid's appearance in Wuhan and ends with Joseph Biden's inauguration in an America ravaged by well over 400,000 deaths - a mortality already some ten times worse than US combat deaths in the entire Vietnam War. This is an anguished, furious memorial to a year in which all of America's great strengths - its scientific knowledge, its great civic and intellectual institutions, its spirit of voluntarism and community - were brought low, not by a terrifying new illness alone, but by political incompetence and cynicism on a scale for which there has been no precedent. With insight, sympathy, clarity and rage, The Plague Year allows the reader to see the unfolding of this great tragedy, talking with individuals on the front line, bringing together many moving and surprising stories and painting a devastating picture of a country literally and fatally misled.'Maddening and sobering - as comprehensive an account of the first year of the pandemic as we've yet seen' Kirkus

An Instant New York Times Bestseller From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower--a riveting thriller and "all-too-convincing chronicle of science, espionage, action and speculation" (The Wall Street Journal) At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When epidemiologist Henry Parsons travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will have staggering repercussions. Halfway across the globe, the deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security scrambles to mount a response to the rapidly spreading pandemic leapfrogging around the world, which she believes may be the result of an act of biowarfare. And a rogue experimenter in man-made diseases is preparing his own terrifying solution. As already-fraying global relations begin to snap, the virus slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions and decimating the population. With his own wife and children facing diminishing odds of survival, Henry travels from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia to his home base at the CDC in Atlanta, searching for a cure and for the origins of this seemingly unknowable disease. The End of October is a one-of-a-kind thriller steeped in real-life political and scientific implications, filled with the insight that has been the hallmark of Wright's acclaimed nonfiction and the full-tilt narrative suspense that only the best fiction can offer.

A DEADLY VIRUS. QUARANTINE. A WORLD IN LOCKDOWN. THE THRILLER THAT PREDICTED IT ALL. THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Flies thrillingly, eerily close to reality' Guardian'This page-turner... is riveting and spookily anticipates much that has unfolded in reality' Sunday TimesA race-against-time thriller, as one man must find the origin and cure for a new killer virus that has brought the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with a mysterious fever. When Dr Henry Parsons - microbiologist and epidemiologist - travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe. As international tensions rise and governments enforce unprecedented measures, Henry finds himself in a race against time to track the source and find a cure - before it's too late . . . ***WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:'If you have a desire to really understand what is going on in the world right now, this is a novel that you cannot afford to miss!''Well-written and fast-paced. Most of all utterly, scarily, believable.'

"An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller." --New York Post "Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and how they work, and dark notes about global warming, the book produces deep shudders . . . A disturbing, eerily timed novel." --Kirkus Reviews"A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton. In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research, he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus." --Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone "This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian migr , a woman who has risen to deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

"An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller." --New York Post "Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and how they work, and dark notes about global warming, the book produces deep shudders . . . A disturbing, eerily timed novel." --Kirkus Reviews"A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton. In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research, he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus." --Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone "This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian migr , a woman who has risen to deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

Originally published in 1983, this book is about the way we see things – or think we do, which is by no means the same – and about the ways in which we have tried to reproduce that visual concept in diagrams, pictures, photographs, films and television. Whatever the medium, if any degree of realism is intended, some use of perspective is inevitable, and some understanding of it can aid the appreciation of the result. But here the technicalities of perspective geometry are treated as far as possible non-technically, by a common-sense approach. Students, would-be artists or architects, are warned in the Preface that they will travel second-class in the author’s train of thought (the ‘general reader’ coming first), but they may well find the journey worthwhile in that it provides a background to a subsequent, more detailed studies. Lawrence Wright shows that every form of perspective representation has some innate falsity, but that most such forms offer an adequate makeshift; that rules of geometry often need to be bent; that labour-saving dodges and shortcuts exist. As he says, perspective drawing, like politics, is an art of the possible. In reading this book, beginners may find it all simpler than they had supposed, though the established expert may in some interesting respects find just the opposite. The general reader may thereafter find himself seeing things – and representations of them – in a new light.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST - The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower--and a Texas native--takes us on a journey through the most controversial state in America. - "Beautifully written.... Essential reading for] anyone who wants to understand how one state changed the trajectory of the country." --NPR The inspiration for the HBO Original documentary trilogy God Save Texas streaming on MaxTexas is a red state, but the cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. Low taxes and minimal regulation have produced extraordinary growth, but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. Bringing together the historical and the contemporary, the political and the personal, Texas native Lawrence Wright gives us a colorful, wide-ranging portrait of a state that not only reflects our country as it is, but as it may become--and shows how the battle for Texas's soul encompasses us all.

'This is a funny, pointed love letter to Texas, at once elegiac and clear-eyed' Ben Macintyre, The Times From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America. Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than twenty years; but it is also a state in which minorities already form a majority (including the largest number of Muslim adherents in the United States). The cities are Democrat and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king but Texas now leads California in technology exports and has an economy only somewhat smaller than Australia's. Lawrence Wright has written an enchanting book about what is often seen as an unenchanting place. Having spent most of his life there, while remaining deeply aware of its oddities, Wright is as charmed by Texan foibles and landscapes as he is appalled by its politics and brutality. With its economic model of low taxes and minimal regulation producing both extraordinary growth and striking income disparities, Texas, Wright shows, looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. This profound portrait of the state, completed just as Texas battled to rebuild after the devastating storms of summer 2017, not only reflects the United States back as it is, but as it was and as it might be. As much the home of Roy Orbison and Willie Nelson as of J. R., Ross Perot and the Bush family, as filled with magical scenery as with desolate oil-fields and strip-malls, Texas is a bellwether, super-sized mass of contradictions: a life-long study.