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.
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 ... The Vortex is at its best in its first third, where the authors describe in harrowing detail nature’s assault on the island of Manpura ... The rest of the story is well known, though the authors tell it with riveting panache.
Carney and conflict and crisis researcher Miklian reveal a long-concealed and profoundly shocking confluence of geopolitical crimes and crises ... Dramatic ... With propulsive narrative drive and intense specificity, the authors circle among a cast of riveting real-life characters, from a soccer star and a humble fisherman turned revolutionary heroes to a valiant humanitarian American couple to Yahya and his fascist generals and political rivals. Deeply involving and harrowing, this commanding work of reclaimed and clarified history is of urgent relevance.
Absorbing ... An essential history of the infuriatingly tragic creation of Bangladesh amid a devastating storm, genocide, war, political intrigue, and hope.
