Reviews
"[A]journalistic masterpiece...Coll succeeds on all levels...Coll is masterful at plumbing the depths of agencies and sects within both Afghanistan and Pakistan...In this era of fake news, Coll remains above it all, this time delivering an impeccably researched history of "diplomacy at the highest levels of government in Washington, Islamabad, and Kabul." - Kirkus Reviews (starred), "[A]journalistic masterpiece...Coll succeeds on all levels...Coll is masterful at plumbing the depths of agencies and sects within both Afghanistan and Pakistan...In this era of fake news, Coll remains above it all, this time delivering an impeccably researched history of "diplomacy at the highest levels of government in Washington, Islamabad, and Kabul." - Kirkus Reviews (starred) " With his evenhanded approach, gift for limning character, and dazzling reporting skills, he has created an essential work of contemporary history." -- Booklist (starred) "The most comprehensive work to date on the U.S. war in Afghanistan...Coll's vital work provides a factual and analytical foundation for all future work on the Afghan War and U.S. policy in Central Asia." -- Publisher's Weekly (starred) "Spellbinding. . . It does for America in Afghanistan what Michael Gordon and Tom Ricks did for the Iraq misadventure in Cobra II and Fiasco ." - Evening Standard "This sequel to Ghost Wars might well become the definitive account of the CIA and America's secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan . . . In the pages of Directorate S , the sequel to Coll's Pulitzer prize-winning Ghost Wars , the story is delivered with a literary prowess that has been absent in previous western accounts of America's longest running war. The dance of blame, with the US swaying at one moment towards Pakistan and the next towards Afghanistan, is a choreography familiar to CIA chiefs, US presidents and writers who have tackled the subject. Coll refuses to follow this tired tune, and the result is masterful." -- The Guardian "Steve Coll's Directorate S is the sequel to his magisterial Ghost Wars . Both books rest on a foundation of serious scholarship and Coll's extraordinary access, to individual CIA officers mostly, but also to many others. These notably included members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, where Directorate S was the name given to the branch of the agency "devoted to secret operations in support of the Taliban, Kashmiri guerrillas, and other violent Islamic radicals". Every assertion is carefully sourced and checked. This book is in the finest traditions of American investigative journalism. Coll is the thinking man's Michael Wolff." -- Sherard Cowper- Coles, Times of London, "[A]journalistic masterpiece...Coll succeeds on all levels...Coll is masterful at plumbing the depths of agencies and sects within both Afghanistan and Pakistan...In this era of fake news, Coll remains above it all, this time delivering an impeccably researched history of "diplomacy at the highest levels of government in Washington, Islamabad, and Kabul." - Kirkus Reviews (starred) " With his evenhanded approach, gift for limning character, and dazzling reporting skills, he has created an essential work of contemporary history." -- Booklist (starred) "The most comprehensive work to date on the U.S. war in Afghanistan...Coll's vital work provides a factual and analytical foundation for all future work on the Afghan War and U.S. policy in Central Asia." -- Publisher's Weekly (starred) "This sequel to Ghost Wars might well become the definitive account of the CIA and America's secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan . . . In the pages of Directorate S , the sequel to Coll's Pulitzer prize-winning Ghost Wars , the story is delivered with a literary prowess that has been absent in previous western accounts of America's longest running war. The dance of blame, with the US swaying at one moment towards Pakistan and the next towards Afghanistan, is a choreography familiar to CIA chiefs, US presidents and writers who have tackled the subject. Coll refuses to follow this tired tune, and the result is masterful." -- The Guardian "Steve Coll's Directorate S is the sequel to his magisterial Ghost Wars . Both books rest on a foundation of serious scholarship and Coll's extraordinary access, to individual CIA officers mostly, but also to many others. These notably included members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, where Directorate S was the name given to the branch of the agency "devoted to secret operations in support of the Taliban, Kashmiri guerrillas, and other violent Islamic radicals". Every assertion is carefully sourced and checked. This book is in the finest traditions of American investigative journalism. Coll is the thinking man's Michael Wolff." -- Sherard Cowper- Coles, Times of London
