February 26, 2016 / Leslie

Friday Book Feature – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Read the book before you see the movie!

Originally published as The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the book was re-released this week as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

The movie, staring Tina Fey, opens March 4th.

About the Book

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

by Kim Barker
Publisher: Anchor | February 2016

Soon to be a major film by Paramount Pictures, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina, is based on Kim Barker’s memoir. Previously published as The Taliban Shuffle, Barker uses her wry, incisive voice to expose the absurdities and tragedies of the “forgotten war,” finding humor and humanity amid the rubble and heartbreak.

Kim first arrived in Kabul as a journalist in 2002. At the time she barely owned a passport, spoke only English and had little idea how to do the “Taliban Shuffle” between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her stories about Islamic militants and shaky reconstruction were soon overshadowed by the bigger news in Iraq. The more she delved deeper into Pakistan and Afghanistan, the more her love for the hapless countries grew, along with her fear for their future stability. Read this darkly comic and unsparing memoir before you watch the movie.

About the Author

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 in 2011. The movie version, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” will be released in March 2016, starring Tina Fey, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Margot Robbie and Billy Bob Thornton. Barker has covered natural disasters such as the tsunami in Asia and the earthquake in Kashmir, as well as tracked manmade disasters — the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the corruption in Afghanistan, and the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.