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BREAKING NEWS

BREAKING NEWS, 2008​

Published by Thomas Dunne, St. Martin’s Press

Tells the story of Fletcher’s career reporting from just about every bad place in the world. These extraordinary real-life adventure stories each examine different dilemmas facing a foreign correspondent.

      Can you eat at the table of a warlord who stole the food from the starving? Do you listen politely to a terrorist threatening to blow up your children? Do you ask the tough questions of a Khmer Rouge killer, knowing he is your only ticket out of the Cambodian jungle? And above all, how do you stay sane faced with so much pain?

      With humor and elegance, Fletcher describes his growth from clueless adventurer to grizzled veteran of the world’s battlefields. In a world obsessed with celebrities, leaders and wealth, Fletcher took a different route. He focused on those left behind. He answers, with passion, the question: Why should we care?

REVIEWS

A sobering but unforgettable account. An eye-opening, deeply felt memoir

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Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A journalistic tour de force

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Library Journal

A page-turner and a marvelous read

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Connie Chung

Fletcher's intense tales read more like a thriller than a memoir

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Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A-)

Martin Fletcher has given us a stunning and memorable account of the risks, rewards, complexities, and enduring lessons of reporting from some of the most dangerous places in the world. His family’s Holocaust history frames his own eloquent insights and questions about the madness of the world that followed. I’ve known and admired Martin for more than thirty years, and this book makes me proud to call him friend and colleague

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Tom Brokaw

For decades Martin Fletcher has been the gold standard of television war correspondents, and his new book is a real-life, cross-continent adventure story. It’s a great and moving read

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Anderson Cooper

Fletcher offers a vivid account of his 30-year career as a war correspondent in the hot spots of the globe. At age 25, Fletcher grew bored with his BBC desk job and grabbed a position as a cameraman with a video news agency. Five days after he arrived in Israel for his second assignment, Egypt and Syria invaded. With no experience under fire, Fletcher found himself dodging bullets on the front lines—and loved it. Over the following decades, wherever there was a conflict—Rhodesia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, South Africa, the killing fields of Rwanda, the first and second intifadas—Fletcher covered the scene. While documenting his adventures, Fletcher also gives a riveting portrayal of the suffering around him and of the macho adrenaline junkies who make up his profession. Fletcher has a clear understanding of the ambiguities of his position as a purveyor of misery and death—for one story, he finds a Somali refugee near death and films her until she stops breathing. Fletcher's engagement with his own family's suffering in the Holocaust adds complexity to a narrative that is both fast-paced and moving

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