WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT is soon to be released as a Major Motion Picture starring Tina Fey. Release date: March 4th, 2016
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
By Kim Barker
Originally published as The Taliban Shuffle:
Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Anchor | Book Publication: February 23, 2016 | $15.95
“Remarkable. . . . [Barker] has written an account of her experiences covering Afghanistan and Pakistan that manages to be hilarious and harrowing, witty and illuminating, all at the same time.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Politically astute and clearly influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, Barker provides sharp commentary on the impotence of American foreign policy in South Asia after the victory against the Taliban. . . . Fierce, funny and unflinchingly honest.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Candid and darkly comic. . . . With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Brilliant, tender, and unexpectedly hilarious.”
—Marie Claire
Soon to be a major film by Paramount Pictures, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina, is based on Kim Barker’s memoir. Previously published as The Taliban Shuffle, Barker uses her wry, incisive voice to expose the absurdities and tragedies of the “forgotten war,” finding humor and humanity amid the rubble and heartbreak.
Kim first arrived in Kabul as a journalist in 2002. At the time she barely owned a passport, spoke only English and had little idea how to do the “Taliban Shuffle” between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her stories about Islamic militants and shaky reconstruction were soon overshadowed by the bigger news in Iraq. The more she delved deeper into Pakistan and Afghanistan, the more her love for the hapless countries grew, along with her fear for their future stability. Read this darkly comic and unsparing memoir before you watch the movie.
KIM BARKER CAN DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:
- Her journalism career highlights, covering manmade and natural disasters for the past decade.
- Her personal adventures in Pakistan and Afghanistan and what she envisions for their future.
- Her reaction to her memoir being adapted into a major motion picture starring Tina Fey.
- Finding humor while covering hard-hitting and dangerous stories.
- Returning to the U.S. after spending five years covering war.
- The political situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- How American journalism, particularly international coverage, has changed since the economic crisis.
Praise for WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
“The Taliban Shuffle is part war memoir, part tale of self-discovery that, thanks to Barker’s biting honesty and wry wit, manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking.”
—Chicago Tribune
“What you’d hear if the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews—brilliant firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than any foreign policy briefing.”
“What you’d hear if the reporter never turned off the voice recorder between interviews—brilliant firsthand outtakes that wind up telling us more about the Afghan debacle than any foreign policy briefing.”
—The Seattle Times
“At once funny and harrowing, insightful and appalling. . . . The Taliban Shuffle will pull you in so deep that you’ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs.”
“At once funny and harrowing, insightful and appalling. . . . The Taliban Shuffle will pull you in so deep that you’ll smell the poppies and quake from the bombs.”
—The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“If you’re looking for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today—from a resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption and nepotism—Barker provides a sterling vantage point.”
“If you’re looking for a window on the challenges facing Afghanistan and Pakistan today—from a resurgent Taliban to American incompetence to Afghan and Pakistani corruption and nepotism—Barker provides a sterling vantage point.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“The Taliban Shuffle gives us an insider’s perspective of Afghanistan and Pakistan—their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning terrorist groups. . . . With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments.”
“The Taliban Shuffle gives us an insider’s perspective of Afghanistan and Pakistan—their fascinating cultures, unstable governments, and burgeoning terrorist groups. . . . With dark, self-deprecating humor and shrewd insight, Barker chronicles her experiences as a rookie foreign reporter and the critical years when the Taliban resurged amidst the collapse of the Afghan and Pakistani governments.”
—The Daily Beast
“Reveals many enduring truths. . . . Novel both for its humor and for its perspective . . . it rises (or sinks) to levels of seriousness that will be remembered long after the po-faced analysis of other writers has been forgotten.”
“Reveals many enduring truths. . . . Novel both for its humor and for its perspective . . . it rises (or sinks) to levels of seriousness that will be remembered long after the po-faced analysis of other writers has been forgotten.”
—The National
“[An] immensely entertaining memoir.”
—The Boston Globe
“Kim Barker gives a true and amusing picture of hellholes and the reporters on assignment in them. But she breaks the journo code of silence and reveals a trade secret of the hacks who cover hellholes: The hell of the holes is that they’re kind of fun.”
—P. J. O'Rourke
“The Taliban Shuffle is Scoop meets Dispatches, remixed with a twenty-first-century Bollywood soundtrack. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one of the world's most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
“The Taliban Shuffle is Scoop meets Dispatches, remixed with a twenty-first-century Bollywood soundtrack. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is the true story of what it is like to be a female journalist in one of the world's most exotic war zones, while telling the reader much about what is really going on today in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
—Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda
“The Taliban Shuffle isn’t like any other book out there about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s witty, brilliant, and impossible to put down.”
—Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City
“Yes, there are bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are people, human beings even, with appetites—for life, for adventure, for riches, for love. Ms. Barker offers this world—the human world caught in the crosshairs of history—with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline.”
“Yes, there are bombs. And there is carnage. And all sorts of mayhem. But mostly there are people, human beings even, with appetites—for life, for adventure, for riches, for love. Ms. Barker offers this world—the human world caught in the crosshairs of history—with a vitality rarely seen in accounts of the war. A compelling read that offers readers a glimpse of the goings-on behind the byline.”
—J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals
ABOUT KIM BARKER
Kim Barker was the South Asia bureau chief for The Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009, based in New Delhi and Islamabad. Her book about those years, “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” a dark comedic take on her time in South Asia, was published by Doubleday in 2011. The movie version, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” will be released in March 2016, starring Tina Fey, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Margot Robbie and Billy Bob Thornton. Barker has covered natural disasters such as the tsunami in Asia and the earthquake in Kashmir, as well as tracked manmade disasters -- the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the corruption in Afghanistan, and the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Before going overseas, Barker worked at The Seattle Times and the Spokane Spokesman-Review. After coming back in 2009, she was the Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she freelanced for Foreign Affairs, Reader’s Digest and The Atlantic. In 2010, she joined ProPublica, where she wrote about campaign finance and the fallout of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
Barker, who grew up in Montana and Wyoming, now lives in Brooklyn and works as a New York Times metro reporter specializing in investigative reporting and narrative writing.
Awards and Honors Kim has received from the following groups, some shared with colleagues:
- Front Page Award for Journalist of the Year, Newswomen’s Club of New York, 2015.
- First place, Investigative Reporters and Editors, large multi-platform category, shared with colleagues, 2013.
- First place, Online News Association, planned news events award for medium outlets, and in the association’s Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism for medium outlets, 2013. Shared with colleagues.
- Sigma Delta Chi award, Society of Professional Journalists, online investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2013.
- Finalist nomination, Deadline Club, reporting by independent digital media, shared with colleagues, 2013.
- Templeton Religion Story of the Year, Religion Newswriters Association, shared with colleagues, 2005.
- First place, Regional Society of Professional Journalists, government reporting, 2001.
- First place, National Clarion Award, investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2001.
- Third place, National Headliner Awards, investigative reporting, shared with colleagues, 2000.
- Second place, C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards, shared with colleagues, 2000.
About the Book
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT By Kim Barker
(Previously titled The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Anchor/February 23, 2016/ISBN 978-0307477385/320 pages/$15.95Movie Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V8V6-VjnWw
