A Farewell to Anthony Shadid

In September 2011, one of my Picks was Anthony Shadid’s House of Stone, a memoir about his working to restore his grandfather’s estate in Lebanon. Shadid spent time there after being released from his six-day detention, with four other New York Times reporters, by forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi. The book is currently set for a late March release. But, alas, the Pulitzer Prize‚ winning reporter, whose coverage of the Middle East was unparalleled (reputedly, he was the only reporter in Iraq who spoke Arabic), won’t be here to see his book’s publication. As readers will know, having sneaked into Syria to cover the uprising, which the leaders there are trying to keep from the world, Shadid evidently died of an asthma attack. What a loss. At least we have the consolation of his book, his final last gift to us all.