The Afghan
by Frederick Forsyth
Bantam, HK$210
In his most contemporary novel to date, Frederick Forsyth launches headlong into the world of al-Qaeda and its clash with the spymasters of the west.
It's perhaps inevitable that Forsyth should turn his hand to Islamic extremism, having tackled many of the great conflicts. With the prominence of September 11, the war against terrorism, the occupation of Iraq and a destabilised Afghanistan that has dragged down conquerors for centuries, it's fitting this one should be next. He does so with aplomb: the skill and meticulous attention to detail that launched him as a best-selling author in 1971 with The Day of the Jackal shine through.
Forsyth's background as a journalist (he covered the Biafra uprising in Africa in the 1960s) is evident in the opening chapters of The Afghan. Seamlessly weaving fact into his fictional narrative, he connects last July's London bombers with senior al-Qaeda members. In the twisted souks and alleyways of a frontier town in Pakistan - an area fiercely loyal to its tribes, not Karachi, and sympathetic to the Taleban - al-Qaeda's leading financier is in hiding.
