Overview

Now a Major Motion Picture titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton. One of Time Magazine's Ten Best Books of 2014 Selected by NPR, Slate, and Kirkus as one of the Best Books of 2014 Shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Book Award Three young adults grapple with the usual thirty-something problems--boredom, authenticity, an omnipotent online oligarchy--in David Shafer's darkly comic debut novel. The Committee, an international cabal of industrialists and media barons, is on the verge of privatizing all information. Dear Diary, an idealistic online Underground, stands in the way of that takeover, using radical politics, classic spycraft, and technology that makes Big Data look like dial-up. Into this secret battle stumbles an unlikely trio: Leila Majnoun, a disillusioned non-profit worker; Leo Crane, an unhinged trustafarian; and Mark Deveraux, a phony self-betterment guru who works for the Committee. Leo and Mark were best friends in college, but early adulthood has set them on diverging paths. Growing increasingly disdainful of Mark's platitudes, Leo publishes a withering takedown of his ideas online. But the Committee is reading--and erasing--Leo's words. On the other side of the world, Leila's discoveries about the Committee's far-reaching ambitions threaten to ruin those who are closest to her. In the spirit of William Gibson and Chuck Palahniuk, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is both a suspenseful global thriller and an emotionally truthful novel about the struggle to change the world in- and outside your head.

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Reviews

Remarkable. . . . [Barker] has written an account of her experiences covering Afghanistan and Pakistan that manages to be hilarious and harrowing, witty and illuminating, all at the same time. --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The Taliban Shuffle isn't like any other book out there about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's witty, brilliant, and impossible to put down. --Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City The Taliban Shuffle is part war memoir, part tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker's biting honesty and wry wit, manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking. --Chicago Tribune What you'd hear if the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews--brilliant firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than any foreign policy briefing. --The Seattle Times At once funny and harrowing, insightful and appalling. . . . The Taliban Shuffle will pull you in so deep that you'll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs. --The Minneapolis Star Tribune If you're looking for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today--from a resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption and nepotism--Barker provides a sterling vantage point. --San Francisco Chronicle Kim Barker gives a true and amusing picture of hellholes and the reporters on assignment in them. But she breaks the journo code of silence and reveals a trade secret of the hacks who cover hellholes: The hell of the holes is that they're kind of fun. --P. J. O'Rourke The Taliban Shuffle gives us an insider's perspective of Afghanistan and Pakistan--their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning terrorist groups. . . . With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments. --The Daily Beast Politically astute and clearly influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, Barker provides sharp commentary on the impotence of American foreign policy in South Asia after the victory against the Taliban. . . . Fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest. --Kirkus Reviews Reveals many enduring truths. . . . Novel both for its humor and for its perspective . . . it rises (or sinks) to levels of seriousness that will be remembered long after the po-faced analysis of other writers has been forgotten. --The National Brilliant, tender, and unexpectedly hilarious. --Marie Claire Candid and darkly comic. . . . With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie. --Publisher's Weekly The Taliban Shuffle is Scoop meets Dispatches, remixed with a twenty-first-century Bollywood soundtrack. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one of the world's most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan. --Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda [An] immensely entertaining memoir. --The Boston Globe Yes, there are bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are people, human beings even, with appetites--for life, for adventure, for riches, for love. Ms. Barker offers this world--the human world caught in the crosshairs of history--with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline. --J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals

Remarkable. . . . [Barker] has written an account of her experiences covering Afghanistan and Pakistan that manages to be hilarious and harrowing, witty and illuminating, all at the same time. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The Taliban Shuffle isn t like any other book out there about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It s witty, brilliant, and impossible to put down. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City The Taliban Shuffle is part war memoir, part tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker s biting honesty and wry wit, manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking. Chicago Tribune What you d hear if the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews brilliant firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than any foreign policy briefing. The Seattle Times At once funny and harrowing, insightful and appalling. . . . The Taliban Shuffle will pull you in so deep that you ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs. The Minneapolis Star Tribune If you re looking for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today from a resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption and nepotism Barker provides a sterling vantage point. San Francisco Chronicle Kim Barker gives a true and amusing picture of hellholes and the reporters on assignment in them. But she breaks the journo code of silence and reveals a trade secret of the hacks who cover hellholes: The hell of the holes is that they re kind of fun. P. J. O'Rourke The Taliban Shuffle gives us an insider s perspective of Afghanistan and Pakistan their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning terrorist groups. . . . With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments. The Daily Beast Politically astute and clearly influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, Barker provides sharp commentary on the impotence of American foreign policy in South Asia after the victory against the Taliban. . . . Fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest. Kirkus Reviews Reveals many enduring truths. . . . Novel both for its humor and for its perspective . . . it rises (or sinks) to levels of seriousness that will be remembered long after the po-faced analysis of other writers has been forgotten. The National Brilliant, tender, and unexpectedly hilarious. Marie Claire Candid and darkly comic. . . . With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie. Publisher s Weekly The Taliban Shuffle is Scoop meets Dispatches, remixed with a twenty-first-century Bollywood soundtrack. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one of the world's most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda [An] immensely entertaining memoir. The Boston Globe Yes, there are bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are people, human beings even, with appetites for life, for adventure, for riches, for love. Ms. Barker offers this world the human world caught in the crosshairs of history with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline. J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals

Author Information

Kim Barker was the South Asia bureau chief for The Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009, based in New Delhi and Islamabad. Her book about those years, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a dark comedic take on her time in South Asia, was published by Doubleday. The movie version, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, was released in 2016, starring Tina Fey, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Margot Robbie and Billy Bob Thornton. Barker is now a metro reporter at The New York Times, specializing in investigative reporting and narrative writing. Before joining The Times in mid-2014, Ms. Barker was an investigative reporter at ProPublica.

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