A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton

Reviewed by Claudine

In this book, Mariane Pearl tells her account of the story of her husband, Danny Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi, Pakistan. Interspersed in the account are touching personal portraits of their loving marriage that makes his sudden and untimely death even harder to accept.

Despite knowing the outcome of the story, one cannot help but be drawn into the web of events from start till end. One marvels at the courage and determination of Mariane as she organizes the search for her husband systematically and logically, turning Danny’s friend’s house into an information centre and drawing links from clues so as to locate her husband’s whereabouts. Together with both local and international investigators, they piece together the links to the mastermind and kidnapper, which proves to be frustrating because each man in the kidnapping chain is an isolated pawn who knows little about the entire operation or about who is above him in the hierarchy.

It reads like a fast paced political thriller but the chilling factor lies in the fact that this is more than real and it is still taking place in parts of the world. This book reveals the complexity of the operations behind the kidnappings of foreigners and why it is so difficult to nail the mastermind or to launch a rescue mission. Marianne exposes the intricate network in fundamentalist Islamic militancy which allows culprits to remain elusive. This book also espouses the risks which correspondents and journalists face in search of good reporting, sometimes at the expense of their lives.

Readers will feel the despair and mounting desperation of Mariane as she searches for Danny in a race against time. When news of Danny’s brutal death is verified, it shocked me as were many people around the world who were watching the events unfold.

Driven by the desire for truth and justice, Mariane wrote this book for her son, Adam, so that he would know that his ‘father was not a hero but an ordinary man. An ordinary man with a mighty heart.’

And so he was.

'A Mighty Heart' is now being made into a movie, starring Angelina Jolie. Be sure to catch it when it’s out on the big screen.

The book is available in the NLB and major bookstores.