Man Who Tried to Save the World (Anderson) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Scott Anderson has used the disappearance to write a mystery story, straight out of a plot from a novel by John le Carre, whose Caucasus thriller, Our Game, Cuny happened to be reading when he disappeared. The Man Who Tried to Save the World works best, though, as biography, the story of a man whose youthful ambition to become a Marine pilot was thwarted and who instead turned his energies to helping victims of war. Finally, it is a chronicle of one of the bloodiest conflicts of our times, where Russia's 150-year grip on the Caucasus finally slipped
Richard Beeston - New York Times Book Review


Forget Mount Everest. Forget the perfect storm. For pure adrenaline, there's nothing like the war zone.
Time Out New York


One of the most important books to be published since the fall of the Berlin Wall...A great, epic mystery of our day.
New York Observer


Not even Anderson's intrepid reporting and formidable storytelling skills can bring clarity to the case of Fred Cuny.... [B]y the book's end, when Anderson advances his own theory...readers will be hard-pressed to judge whether it's more plausible than any of the conspiracy theories that precede it. And yet, confronted with a Gordian knot of facts and a succession of unreliable sources, Anderson does an admirable job of searching for the truth in a land that truth forgot.
Publisher Weekly


Anderson helps us distinguish Cuny's "myth" from his remarkable life. In his personal quest to penetrate the "fog of intrigue" surrounding his subject, Anderson delivers a plausible explanation of Cuny's death and reveals the unique terrorism of Russia's Chechnyan war. As a biography, this book begs questions, but as a nonfiction mystery it is gripping. —Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Library Journal


Anderson's assignment to write a newspaper article about Cuny's disappearance turned into a three-year quest to learn the truth about Cuny's amazing, mysterious life. This is an intensely moving portrait of a man who is impossible to pin down.... A fascinating book. —David Pitt
Booklist


A masterful portrait of Fred Cuny.... It's hard to name a major disaster in the last 20 years that didn't find Cuny at the helm of the rescue effort.... Was Cuny a CIA operative? Was he killed by Chechan rebels...? We may never know, but this much is certainly obvious: Cuny was a man whose humanitarian impact cannot be denied and who will be missed.
Kirkus Reviews