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The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation
Top of the pile
87
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
93/100Critics
81/100Scholars
Author:
Scott Carney, Jason Miklian
Publisher:
Ecco
Date:
March 29, 2022
The deadliest storm in modern history ripped Pakistan in two and led the world to the brink of nuclear war when American and Soviet forces converged in the Bay of Bengal. Authors Scott Carney and Jason Miklian take us deep into the story of the cyclone and its aftermath, told through the eyes of the men and women who lived through it, including the infamous president of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan, and his close friend Richard Nixon; American expats Jon and Candy Rhode; soccer star-turned-soldier Hafiz Uddin Ahmad; and a young Bengali revolutionary, Mohammed Hai.
What The Reviewers Say
The authors describe The Vortex as a book of narrative nonfiction, and it certainly is that, the product of more than 200 interviews and multiple trips to Bangladesh, undertaken to help build dramatic (and occasionally theatrical) reconstructions of events.
Carney and conflict and crisis researcher Miklian reveal a long-concealed and profoundly shocking confluence of geopolitical crimes and crises.
Absorbing.
Carney and Miklian write vividly in the fashion of a cinematic disaster flick, introducing a string of real-life characters — including a Pakistani soccer star and a heroic American expat couple — in the months and years before the storm, then following their travails as the cyclone ravaged the region.
