A Rope and a Prayer : A Kidnapping from Two Sides

362 Pages Indexed. Mauve covers with brown quarter-spine. Dust jacket price 26.95 is unclipped. No defects noted. In November 2008, David Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times, plans to travel to Afghanistan meet a Taliban commander outside Kabul, Afghanistan. The interview is risky, but Rohde hopes it will be the final piece in a book he is writing about the Afghan war. But the interview is a trap. Rohde, his driver, and the Afghan journalist working with him are kidnapped by Taliban militants and taken deep into the tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan. For the next seven months, they are spirited from one Taliban stronghold to the next as their abductors keep a wary eye out for American drone attacks. In the process, Rohde becomes the first American to see close up the thriving terrorist ministate the Taliban have established inside Pakistan. As the militants train suicide bombers and plot attacks, Rohde and his col- leagues learn how Pakistan's powerful military turns a blind eye to the Taliban's activities. All the while, Rohde's kidnappers treat him with a mixture of cruelty, hospital- ity, and greed, promising to release him one minute and threatening to sell his bones to his family the next. In New York, David's wife, Kristen, together with his family and the staff of The New York Times, struggles to navigate a labyrinth of conflicting agendas, misinforma- tion, and lies. They appeal to government and intelligence officials in Washington and Islamabad, send messages to David's captors, and hire contractors to negotiate with them. For David's safety, they manage to keep the kidnapping secret for months. Kristen's life becomes agonizing and surreal as she shuttles between the celebrity photo shoots she oversees in her job at Cosmopolitan magazine and private meetings with the FBI. She comes to realize that no one knows where David is or how to secure his release. A story of faith, resilience, and survival, this memoir transcends the personal to illuminate the larger international tragedy of America's involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. David and Kristen's account of those seven months is at once a love story and a reflection of the great cultural divide-and challenge-of our time. Includes maps, chronology, and a list of principal characters organizations and places in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and New York. Also Two-Page Author's Note.…