WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT by Kim Barker #Giveaway #ComingSoonToTheaters

Now a Major Motion Picture titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton. 
From tea with warlords in the countryside to parties with drunken foreign correspondents in the “dry” city of Kabul, journalist Kim Barker captures the humor and heartbreak of life in post-9/11 Afghanistan and Pakistan in this profound and darkly comic memoir. As Barker grows from awkward newbie to seasoned reporter, she offers an insider’s account of the region’s “forgotten war” at a time when all eyes were turned to Iraq. Candid, self-deprecating, and laugh-out-loud funny, Barker shares both her affection for the absurdities of these two hapless countries and her fear for their future stability.

GOODREADS  AMAZON  B&N

“The Taliban Shuffle is part war memoir, part tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker’s biting honesty and wry wit, manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking.” 

—Chicago Tribune
 
“What you’d hear if the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews—brilliant firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than any foreign policy briefing.” 

—The Seattle Times

“At once funny and harrowing, insightful and appalling. . . . The Taliban Shuffle will pull you in so deep that you’ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs.”

—The Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“If you’re looking for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today—from a resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption and nepotism—Barker provides a sterling vantage point.”

—San Francisco Chronicle 
 
“The Taliban Shuffle gives us an insider’s perspective of Afghanistan and Pakistan—their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning terrorist groups. . . . With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments.”

—The Daily Beast 

“Reveals many enduring truths. . . . Novel both for its humor and for its perspective . . . it rises (or sinks) to levels of seriousness that will be remembered long after the po-faced analysis of other writers has been forgotten.”

—The National 

“[An] immensely entertaining memoir.”

—The Boston Globe

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Kim Barker was the South Asia bureau chief for The Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009, based in New Delhi and Islamabad. Her book about those years, “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” a dark comedic take on her time in South Asia, was published by Doubleday in 2011. The movie version, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” will be released in March 2016, starring Tina Fey, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Margot Robbie and Billy Bob Thornton. Barker has covered natural disasters such as the tsunami in Asia and the earthquake in Kashmir, as well as tracked manmade disasters -- the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the corruption in Afghanistan, and the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Before going overseas, Barker worked at The Seattle Times and the Spokane Spokesman-Review. After coming back in 2009, she was the Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she freelanced for Foreign Affairs, Reader’s Digest and The Atlantic. In 2010, she joined ProPublica, where she wrote about campaign finance and the fallout of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. 

Barker, who grew up in Montana and Wyoming, now lives in Brooklyn and works as a New York Times metro reporter specializing in investigative reporting and narrative writing.

Awards and Honors Kim has received from the following groups, some shared with colleagues:

·        Front Page Award for Journalist of the Year, Newswomen’s Club of New York, 2015.

·        First place, Investigative Reporters and Editors, large multi-platform category, shared with colleagues, 2013.

·        First place, Online News Association, planned news events award for medium outlets, and in the association’s Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism for medium outlets, 2013. Shared with colleagues.

·        Sigma Delta Chi award, Society of Professional Journalists, online investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2013.

·        Finalist nomination, Deadline Club, reporting by independent digital media, shared with colleagues, 2013.

·        Templeton Religion Story of the Year, Religion Newswriters Association, shared with colleagues, 2005.

·        First place, Regional Society of Professional Journalists, government reporting, 2001.

·        First place, National Clarion Award, investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2001.

·        Third place, National Headliner Awards, investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2000.

·        Second place, C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards, shared with colleagues, 2000.