The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century

Steve Coll is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and from 2007 to 2013 was president of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, D.C. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and previously worked for twenty years at The Washington Post, where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990. He is the author of seven other books, including On the Grand Trunk Road, The Bin Ladens, Private Empire, and Directorate S.

How do you keep a nonfiction audio that spans three generations and four continents worth hearing? First, you find a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who knows how to blend story, fact, and politics into readability. Like Steve Coll. Then you find a reader who keeps the narration moving, emphasizes the historical drama, and delivers Saudi names, titles, and places seamlessly. Like Erik Singer. Beginning with the family patriarch, Mohammed, the book traces how his poverty in the southern Yemen desert and menial Saudi jobs ended in engineering feats and a fortune for the 50 children he leaves behind to carry on the bin Laden traditions. Some are in Saudi telecommunications and construction, others in real estate around the world, and one is incubating a cult of martyrdom in Afghanistan. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine