The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State

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Product Description What does ISIS really want? This is the definitive account of the strategy, psychology, and fundamentalism driving the Islamic State. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS • “Worthy of Joseph Conrad . . . gripping, sobering and revelatory.”—Tom Holland, New Statesman The Islamic State inspired a wave of true believers to travel to Syria from Europe, America, and the Middle East, in numbers not seen since the Crusades. What compelled tens of thousands of men and women to leave comfortable, privileged lives to join a death cult in the desert? Steven Pinker called Graeme Wood’s analysis of this phenomenon in  The Atlantic “fascinating, terrifying, occasionally blackly humorous.” In  The Way of the Strangers, Wood uses character study, analysis, and original reporting to take us further into the Islamic State’s apocalyptic vision. Though the Islamic State has lost territory, it threatens to rise again, and its followers are plotting on every continent. From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London, Wood meets with supporters, recruiters, and scholars and asks them why they believe that killing and dying for this cause is the only path to Paradise. With a new afterword,  The Way of the Strangers uncovers the theology and emotional appeal of this resilient group and explores its idiosyncratic, coherent approach to Islam. Just as Lawrence Wright’s  The Looming Tower explained the rise of Al Qaida, this book will shape our understanding of a new and deadlier generation of terrorists. Praise for The Way of the Strangers “ The Way of the Strangers represents journalism at its best: vivid writing, indefatigable legwork, and fearless analysis.” —Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World “Wood is a brilliant analyst and storyteller, and his firsthand reporting and language abilities make him the most reliable commentator on the Islamic State that I have read. His wit matches his intelligence (’Well-behaved Salafis seldom make history’)—you don't get through any two pages in his book without a good laugh.” —Peter Theroux, author of Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia  “Excruciatingly well observed and devastatingly honest . . . This is the first and only book about the Islamic State to expose, explain, and ultimately undermine its ideology with the relentless irony that comes from blending deep knowledge with hands-on experience. Wood makes it impossible not to laugh, despite the horrors.” —Elisabeth Kendall, senior research fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies, University of Oxford Review “Readers are taken on a global journey to meet the frothing fans of ISIS. . . . [Graeme] Wood wants to know these people, to get in their skin, to understand how they see the world. Unlike most journalists writing about Islam today, there is no partisan axe to grind here, no hidden agenda to subtly advance. . . . To these troubled men, Islam is not an opiate of the masses; it is a euphoric, reality-bending, and ultimately self-annihilating psychedelic.” —New Republic “Masterful.” —The New York Review of Books “[Graeme Wood] shows, convincingly, that the stifling and abhorrent practices of the Islamic State are rooted in Islam itself—not mainstream Islam, but in scriptures and practices that have persisted for centuries. . . . The Islamic State, such as it is, is a dangerous place, and Wood’s book amounts to a tour around its far edges.” —Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “Worthy of Joseph Conrad . . . In a field where there has admittedly been little competition, [Wood’s] book ranks as the funniest yet written on Islamic State. As in many a British sitcom, the comedy mostly emerges from the disequilibrium between the scale of his characters’ pretensions and ambitions and the banality of their day-to-day lives. . . . Gripping, sobering and revelatory.” —New Statesman (UK) “The best way to defeat the Islamic State is to understand it. And t