BLACK FLAGS

 Joby Warrick

When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it did not realise that one of them, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would become the architect of an Islamist movement bent on dominating West Asia. In this book, the American journalist Joby Warrick shows how the zeal of this one mastermind, and the strategic mistakes of Western governments, led to the banner of Islamic State being raised over huge swathes of Syria and Iraq. Warrick combines gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats, spies, generals and heads of state—many of whom foresaw the menace of ISIS, and tried desperately to stop it.

Bantam Press, 368 pages, $16