A Mighty Heart: The Inside Story of the Al Qaeda and Kidnapping of Danny Pearl
Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton, 2003
Simon & Schuster
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780743262378
Summary
For five weeks the world waited for news about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan.... And then came the broadcast of his shocking murder. The complete account of his abduction, the intense effort to rescue him, and the aftermath are told here—in astonishing detail, and with courage and insight—by his surviving wife, Mariane.
A Mighty Heart is the unforgettable story of two journalists who fell in love with their work—and with each other. Together, Mariane and Danny Pearl traveled across the globe, dedicated to journalism that increases the understanding of international politics and of ethnic and religious conflict. In the end, Danny was caught in the dangerous fissure where warring cultures, politics, and ideologies collide. A Mighty Heart is both a portrait of a partnership built on the ideals of love, truth, and justice and a critical look at the methods and structure of the Al Qaeda network. (From the publisher.)
The book was adapted into a 2007 film, starring Angelina Jolie./p>
Author Bio
• Birth—July 23, 1967
• Where—Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Mariane van Neyenhoff Pearl is a French freelance journalist and a reporter and columnist for Glamour magazine. She is the widow of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002.
Pearl was born in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France being of Dutch-Jewish, Afro-Latino-Cuban and Chinese Cuban ancestry and raised in Paris, Van Neyenhoff met Daniel Pearl while he was on assignment in Paris.
They married in August 1999, lived for a time in Mumbai, India where Daniel was the South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, and later traveled to Karachi, Pakistan to cover aspects of the war on terrorism. Their son Adam Daniel was born in Paris three months after his father died.
Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart, which deals with the events surrounding her husband's kidnapping and assassination, was adapted for the film A Mighty Heart. Co-produced by Brad Pitt, Andrew Eaton and Dede Gardner and directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman as Mariane and Daniel Pearl.
Mariane Pearl is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and a member of Soka Gakkai International. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Deftly written with the help of Sarah Crichton, formerly an editor at Newsweek and publisher at Little, Brown, A Mighty Heart resists the obvious peril of falling into hackneyed sentimentality. Instead of playing the part of the helpless, hopeless weeping widow while "screaming inside," Mariane Pearl is both sharp-eyed and practical, and at some points even mordantly amusing.
Jane Mayer - Washington Post
Documentary film director and former French public radio and television journalist Pearl tenderly recounts the heartbreaking story behind the 2002 kidnapping and barbaric videotaped execution of her husband, Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, in this candid and inspirational audio recording. There's no mistaking the steel beneath Mariane's lilting French accent as she explains why she wrote this book—to defy her husband's killers-and how she distrusted Karachi, a decadent city where anti-American and anti-Semitic sentiments abound, from the start. Her telling of her husb—and's abduction and the frantic attempts to save him is dramatic and disturbing, but she tempers it with choice memories of her and Danny's first meeting, courtship, marriage and excitement over their impending baby. Details about the historical, social and political background of the Middle East help illuminate the area and its inhabitants, but ultimately, this is a loving, illuminating and movingly recounted tale of love and courage.
Publishers Weekly
Danny and Mariane Pearl felt that good reporting is essential to a person's understanding of the complicated relationship between regional politics and religions around the globe. They both knew and understood the risks in their line of work. Believing he was taking all the necessary precautions, Danny went to Karachi, Pakistan, as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal to investigate terrorist activity there. The Pearls believed in the ideals of truth, justice, and love; they thought they would be able to contribute to world peace and/or world understanding. When the news came of her husband's abduction, the author put her reporter's instincts and the network of connections she had accumulated during her time in South Asia to work in the hopes of finding and saving him. A global effort to locate him and his captors was also going on, but culture, politics, and language separated the American rescuers from the Islamic terrorists. Tragically, it was impossible to save Danny despite the many kind and brave people who helped Pearl in her search. For five weeks, the world watched and waited with her, then pregnant with the couple's first child. This is a complex and moving story, offering an intimate glimpse of a marriage built on idealism. Recommended for public libraries. —Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
top of page