Black Hawk Down - by Mark Bowden (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1993, a band of U.S. soldiers in Somalia were on a mission to capture two lieutenants of a Somali warlord. Through the night, in the longest sustained fighting by American troops since Vietnam, they battled thousands of armed Somalis. By morning, 18 Americans were dead. Now a major motion picture from Columbia Pictures, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, and Sam Shepard, set for release in March 2002.

Book Synopsis

Already a classic of war reporting and now reissued as a Grove Press paperback, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War.

On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily-armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded.
Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden's minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.

About the Author

MARK BOWDEN is the author of seven books, including The Best Game Ever, Bringing the Heat, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah. He reported at The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and other magazines. He lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania.