Days of Fear

December 15, 2009
An Italian journalist skillfully recounts his 15 terror-filled days and nights in the hands of the Taliban.

In the spring of 2007, La Repubblica correspondent Mastrogiacomo sought to interview a commander of the resurgent Taliban in Helmand province. Upon his arrival, the reporter—draped in a native shalwar to honor his subject—was abducted along with his interpreter and his driver. At the hands of captors brandishing Kalashnikovs, they were transported across the desert in the trunk of a car and shifted from prison to prison to avoid detection. The captors' pious objective, a return to the ancient, halcyon world of the Prophet, was aided by modern firepower, satellite phones and video cameras. Their captives, blindfolded and bound, were bodies to be bartered. The prisoners were beaten, flogged and humiliated by young mujahideen who were laughing and singing and ready to die. Mastrogiacomo, accused of being spy, conversed and debated with his keepers. Without the benefit of contemporaneous notes, the author reconstructs, in present-tense journal form, the events of his captivity and the circumstances of his eventual release. He displays no signs of Stockholm syndrome. Mastrogiacomo, who witnessed the beheading of his driver, hates his duplicitous jihadi tormentors, and he presents a searing, frightening tale.

Graphic and harrowing.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2010
This is a riveting story of the capture and eventual release of the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo ("La Repubblica") by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The author, who has covered national and international events for many years, was captured, along with his translator (Ajmal Naqshbandi) and driver (Sayed Agha) in March 2007. His captors first thought that Mastrogiacomo was a British officer, but after learning that he was an Italian reporter, they demanded that Italy withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. When the Italian government refused to do so, his captors made a videotape of him and his two Afghan helpers and beheaded Sayed Agha, the driver, on the video. Mastrogiacomo's firsthand account of his captivity in Afghanistan, translated by Reynolds, reads like a suspense novel that highlights the unforgettable cruelty experienced by the captives of the Taliban. Although he was later freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, his translator and driver were executed by their captors. VERDICT Recommended for all interested readers in international affairs, this may appeal to some true-crime readers as well. [See also Jere Van Dyk's "Captive: My Time As a Prisoner of the Taliban", coming from Times Bks: Holt in June 2010.Ed.]Nader Entessar, Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile

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