Overview

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next. An international bestseller, her life story Infidel shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright, curious, dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no other book could be more timely, or more significant.

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9781416526247

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Reviews

'It's been a week since I finished reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's remarkable autobiography, and I haven't stopped thinking about it or talking about it for long. I'd recommend her story to anyone'  -- Mary Wakefield * Daily Telegraph * 'Comes at you with an almost raging power, like a river bursting its banks . . . [Hirsi Ali] proves herself here a true writer, able to sum up a scene that may be completely foreign to the reader in a way that makes it a living, breathing experience, unforgettably raw and immediate' -- Natasha Walter * Guardian * 'A brave and elegant figure . . . an honest woman . . . No one who reads her [memoirs] will doubt the self-questioning and the rigorous honesty of her mind. Perhaps, as in Voltaire's short story 'L'IngÉnu,' it is that too much honesty is sometimes unpalatable, even if it is couched in civil terms . . . She has an open mind that has released itself from the old straitjacketed frame of reference of Right and Left, she is instinctively, deeply antiauthoritarian and she is unlikely to stick to straight ideological lines. She will go on asking difficult questions'   -- Isabella Thomas * The Observer * 'Too potent a social critic to be tolerated any longer [in her home country] . . . an unflinching advocate of women's rights and an unflinching critic of Islamic extremism'   * The New York Times * 'A charismatic figure. . . of arresting and hypnotizing beauty . . . [who writes] with quite astonishing humor and restraint'   -- Christopher Hitchens

Author Information

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali came to the Netherlands as a refugee. She earned her college degree in political science and worked for the Dutch Labor party. She denounced Islam after the September 11 terrorist attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West.

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