If you need to escape the drudgery of daily life, one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do so is to curl up with a good book. Many people love reading thrillers and crime novels because of the action and suspense these provide. With terrorism fiction you not only get thrilling reading but they often provide food for thought too, especially if you're interested in politics.
Terrorism is very hard to define. It usually involves using violence to create fear, in order to bring about political or ideological changes. The group or person acts independently from governmental entities like the national military. However, who is labeled a terrorist often depends on your point of view. Some people argue that many terrorist groups are in fact liberation armies.
One of the best genres in which to look for terrorism as a theme is the spy novel. Especially towards and since the end of the Cold War, the work of secret agents often revolve around capturing terrorists. Tom Clancy's series of books featuring secret agent Jack Ryan, made immortal on screen by Harrison Ford, are an example. Two of the most famous titles in the series are 'Patriot Games' and 'The Sum of all Fears'.
Some of the most fascinating terrorists in history were women. Leila Khaled, for instance, was a Palestinian revolutionary who was famous for not only hijacking airplanes but also for her extraordinary beauty. John le Carre, another master of the espionage genre, created the character of Charlie, an actress turned double agent and terrorist for the Palestinian cause in 'The Little Drummer Girl'.
While Palestinian liberation has long been a favorite theme in the genre, many writers have also looked to Northern Ireland for inspiration. The actions of the Irish Republican Army have often been called terrorist acts. Books like Jack Higgins' 'A Prayer Before Dying' revolve around members of this organization and how they deal with the violence they've been responsible for.
A very gripping book about terrorism is 'An Act of Terror'. Translated from the Afrikaans, it's South African writer Andre Brink's account of the life of a young Afrikaans-speaking photographer who is involved in a botched attempt at a terrorist action and has to flee across the country. It is set in apartheid South Africa, when liberation movements were banned and usually called terrorists.
Doris Lessing, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature, is the author of 'The Good Terrorist', about a group of very liberal but naive young people in Britain who decide to become terrorists. They aren't fighting for a specific cause but for a more general ideology. In around the 1970s, there were several similar groups all across Europe and the USA. The Red Brigades of Italy, the Red Army Faction or Baader-Meinhof Group of West Germany and the Symbionese Liberation Army of the United States are the most notorious. It was the latter who kidnapped Patty Hearst and got her to join them.
The ongoing War on Terror provides an almost endless source of inspiration for new works of terrorism fiction. You can find these books online, in your local library or at a good bookstore. Be sure to make enough time to read them, though, since you won't be able to put them down until the last page.
Terrorism is very hard to define. It usually involves using violence to create fear, in order to bring about political or ideological changes. The group or person acts independently from governmental entities like the national military. However, who is labeled a terrorist often depends on your point of view. Some people argue that many terrorist groups are in fact liberation armies.
One of the best genres in which to look for terrorism as a theme is the spy novel. Especially towards and since the end of the Cold War, the work of secret agents often revolve around capturing terrorists. Tom Clancy's series of books featuring secret agent Jack Ryan, made immortal on screen by Harrison Ford, are an example. Two of the most famous titles in the series are 'Patriot Games' and 'The Sum of all Fears'.
Some of the most fascinating terrorists in history were women. Leila Khaled, for instance, was a Palestinian revolutionary who was famous for not only hijacking airplanes but also for her extraordinary beauty. John le Carre, another master of the espionage genre, created the character of Charlie, an actress turned double agent and terrorist for the Palestinian cause in 'The Little Drummer Girl'.
While Palestinian liberation has long been a favorite theme in the genre, many writers have also looked to Northern Ireland for inspiration. The actions of the Irish Republican Army have often been called terrorist acts. Books like Jack Higgins' 'A Prayer Before Dying' revolve around members of this organization and how they deal with the violence they've been responsible for.
A very gripping book about terrorism is 'An Act of Terror'. Translated from the Afrikaans, it's South African writer Andre Brink's account of the life of a young Afrikaans-speaking photographer who is involved in a botched attempt at a terrorist action and has to flee across the country. It is set in apartheid South Africa, when liberation movements were banned and usually called terrorists.
Doris Lessing, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature, is the author of 'The Good Terrorist', about a group of very liberal but naive young people in Britain who decide to become terrorists. They aren't fighting for a specific cause but for a more general ideology. In around the 1970s, there were several similar groups all across Europe and the USA. The Red Brigades of Italy, the Red Army Faction or Baader-Meinhof Group of West Germany and the Symbionese Liberation Army of the United States are the most notorious. It was the latter who kidnapped Patty Hearst and got her to join them.
The ongoing War on Terror provides an almost endless source of inspiration for new works of terrorism fiction. You can find these books online, in your local library or at a good bookstore. Be sure to make enough time to read them, though, since you won't be able to put them down until the last page.
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