Breaking News

January 14, 2008
Currently NBC news bureau chief in Tel Aviv, 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.

July 28, 2008
Fletcher's experience as a seasoned foreign correspondent provides substance in this intriguing and somber audio. Finding himself in the middle of conflicts, wars and other devastating predicaments, Fletcher, NBC's Middle East correspondent and Tel Aviv bureau chief, brings a brutal honesty to his prose that reveals some of the moral challenges faced by those who report these events. Grappling with the age-old field reporter's conundrum—do something or simply observe—Fletcher concludes that there is no easy answer because both come with unwanted consequences. Stephen Hoye's strong projection and soft tone matches Fletcher's somber and frank words. A Thomas Dunne hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 14).