Kim Ghattas

Born and raised in Beirut during the civil war, I wanted to be a journalist since I was 13 years old. I pursued that goal doggedly... and made it. I covered the Middle East for the BBC, the Financial Times and the Dutch daily de Volkskrant. I moved to the US in 2008 to be the BBC's State department correspondent, traveling the world with American secretaries of State. I wrote about these travels and American foreign policy in my first book, The Secretary, which became a NYT best seller in 2013. I then published Black Wave, about the Saudi-Iran rivalry, which was listed by the NYT as a notable book of 2020 and was shortlisted for the Cundhill History prize. My next book, The Best Kind of American will be published in October 2026. It tells the story of how we went from the 1979 Iranian revolution and 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon to Operation Epic Future in 2026. The narrative arc is intertwined with a murder mystery... I live between Beirut and writing desks around the world.