Kirkus Reviews

The tale of a devoted collector of manuscripts who outwitted militant jihadis. Throughout Timbuktu's tumultuous history, writes Hammer (Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II, 2006, etc.), the city "seemed to be in a constant state of flux, periods of openness and liberalism followed by waves of intolerance and repression" involving the killing of scholars in the 1300s, the banishment and imprisonment of Jews in the 1490s, and the implementation of Sharia law in the 1800s. In this vivid, fast-paced narrative, the author recounts another period of devastating repression when extremists took over the city in 2012, threatening both inhabitants and Mali's cultural heritage. As a former bureau chief for Newsweek and current contributing editor to Smithsonian and Outside, Hammer draws on many—often dangerous—visits to the city and interviews with major players to chronicle the efforts of Abdel Kader Haidara to sa ve priceless literary and historical manuscripts. Since the 1980s, working for Mali's Ahmed Baba Institute, Haidara traveled by camel, canoe, and on foot, crossing perilous terrain, to acquire ancient manuscripts that had been hidden for safekeeping, sometimes in caves or holes in the ground. Some had decayed to dust or been eaten by termites, but in Mali's dry climate, many thousands had been preserved. After nearly a decade at the institute, he had collected 16,500 manuscripts. Eventually, he amassed hundreds of thousands. As Hammer portrays him, Haidara was tireless, ingenious, and single-minded. Besides recounting Haidara's efforts as collector, fundraiser, library builder, and publicist, Hammer conveys in palpable detail the rise and radicalization of al-Qaida militants. By 2006, Timbuktu had evolved into a modern city, with five hotels catering to growing tourism and three Internet cafes. Six years later, hundreds of extremists took over, arresting, executing, holding f oreign hostages for exorbitant ransoms, and determined to purge the city of music, art, and literature. A chilling portrait of a country under siege and one man's defiance. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Reviews

In the 1980s, as an archivist working for a Mali government library, Abdel Kader Haidara made his way across the Sahara's sands to rescue tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts nearly lost to history. In 2012, as al Qaeda militants swarmed through Mali, Haidara directed a team of librarians at the privately funded Mamma Haidara Memorial Library in Timbuktu, who packed more than 350,000 manuscripts into tin boxes and sneaked them out of city to safety in southern Mali. Multi-award-winning journalist/author Hammer, who has been visiting Mali for two decades, tells an absorbing story of librarians as risk-taking heroes, striking a blow for culture.

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Library Journal Reviews

Hammer, an experienced journalist who knows Mali and its historic city of Timbuktu well, interweaves three astonishing stories, reflecting both the vulnerability and strength of a rich Islamic culture in West Africa. First he introduces Abdel Kader Haidara, a Timbuktu native who became an expert on his city's ancient manuscripts while working with the National Library of Mali in the 1980s. The author then presents the rise of a brutal group of militants in the region after 2008, their conquest of Timbuktu and threat to the records that embody centuries of vibrant Islamic history. He lastly describes the ingenious rescue of the records and transporting them more than 400 miles across the Sahara and on the Niger River to safekeeping in Bamako, Mali's capital. This powerful narrative of adventure juxtaposes a convincing description of a cultural heritage encompassing religion, history, literature, and science over eight centuries with the cruelty and intolerance of Jihadi groups arising in the region. VERDICT Hammer's clearly written and engaging chronicle of the achievements of Timbuktu, the risks presented to this area, and the portraits of several brave and dedicated individuals brings to light an important and unfamiliar story. [See Prepub Alert, 10/12/15; "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 28 ff.]—Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL

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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Journalist Hammer (Yokohama Burning) reports on librarian Abdel Kader Haidara and his associates' harrowing ordeal as they rescued 370,000 historical manuscripts from destruction by al-Qaeda-occupied Timbuktu. Hammer sketches Haidara's career amassing manuscripts from Timbuktu's neighboring towns and building his own library, which opened in 2000. Meanwhile, three al-Qaeda operatives, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Abdel-hamid Abou Zeid, and Iyad Ag Ghali, escalate from kidnapping and drug trafficking to orchestrating a coup with Tuareg rebels against the Malian army and seizing Timbuktu. The militants aim to "turn the clocks back fourteen hundred years" by destroying revered religious shrines and imposing Sharia law, which includes flogging unveiled women and severing the hands of thieves. Fearing for the safety of the manuscripts, Haidara and associates buy up "every trunk in Timbuktu" and pack them off 606 miles south to Bamako, employing a team of teenage couriers. Hammer does a service to Haidara and the Islamic faith by providing the illuminating history of these manuscripts, managing to weave the complicated threads of this recent segment of history into a thrilling story. Agent: Flip Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Apr.)

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