Book description
The Bin Ladens are shrouded in secrecy, living in one of the most
closed, unaccountable countries on earth. Little has been known about
the world that created Osama - until now.
In this gripping account prizewinning journalist Steve Coll has
interviewed those closest to the family who rose from Yemeni peasants
to jetsetting millionaires in two generations. In doing so, he reveals
a Saudi Arabia torn between religious purity and the temptations of
the West, telling a story of oil, money, power, patronage and
dangerous cultural extremes.
Steve Coll is most recently the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
bestseller
Ghost Wars
. He also won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. He
covered Afghanistan as the
Washington Post
's South Asia bureau chief between 1989 and 1992 and was the
Post
's managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is now a staff writer for the
New Yorker
. He is the author of five books, including
On the Grand Trunk Road
and
The Taking of Getty Oil
. He lives with his wife and three children in Maryland.
