Description: Journalist Nicholas Schmidle worked in Pakistan from 2006-2008. Those two years
have been arguably the most turbulent period of Pakistan’s recent history, a time when President
Pervez Musharraf lost his power and the Taliban found theirs. During his time there, Schmidle
met and befriended some of Pakistan’s most wanted men, including Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the
pro-Taliban leader who ran the Red Mosque and was killed in the famous siege in 2007, and Jamil
Bugti, son of the legendary slain Baluchi separatist leader Akbar Khan Bugti. In To Live or to
Perish Forever, he provides a rare glimpse of these men, taking us on a journey through Pakistan
from the rioting streets of its cites, to Baluchistan, where a fiery separatist war is being played out,
to the Taliban camps in the North-West Frontier Province. Gripping, sympathetic, and eye opening,
To Live or to Perish Forever is a valuable first hand account of Pakistan today. It is essential
reading for anyone interested in the region.
About the Author Nicholas Schmidle is a fellow at the New America Foundation. He writes for the New York Times
Magazine, Slate, The New Republic, Smithsonian, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, among other
publications, and received the 2008 Kurt Schork Award for freelance journalism. As a fellow of the
Institute of Current World Affairs, he lived and reported in Pakistan for two years. Schmidle is a
graduate of James Madison University and American University. He lives in Washington, DC with
his wife.
