NPR

'They Will Have To Die Now' Is A Bare-Knuckles Account Of The Fight Against ISIS

James Verini's book will stand up with some of the best war reporting, as he takes an unblinking look at the dirtiest kind of battle — urban combat — and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake.
<em>They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate,</em> by James Verini

James Verini calls himself a "coward and a hypocrite."

Why? For not having the guts to cover the Afghanistan war after reporting on the destruction of the World Trade Center as a young reporter.

Heading to Mosul in the summer of 2016, he says, to write about life under the Islamic State, was a kind of "penance."

First of all, he's too hard onwill stand up with some of the best war reporting. He takes an unblinking look at the dirtiest kind of battle — urban combat — and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake.

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