The Best Kind of American - by Kim Ghattas Hardcover

Book Synopsis

A work of true crime following one American family's search for the truth after a 1984 murder in war-torn Beirut, where the Iranian revolution collided with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, setting off the geopolitical conflagration that burns to this day, from acclaimed and bestselling author Kim Ghattas.

On January 18, 1984, Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, was assassinated by a pair of gunmen outside his office. His murder, in the wake of the bombing of the U.S. Marines' barracks, Palestinian guerrilla warfare, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was just one more shocking headline in a city ravaged by chaos. There was no investigation. Four decades later, the question of who killed Malcom and why still haunts Kerr's family, including his son Steve, a now world-famous basketball player and NBA coach.

In The Best Kind of American, Kim Ghattas embarks on a quest to solve Kerr's assassination, weaving together the family's story with Lebanon's warlords and peacemakers, Hezbollah hostage-takers and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and American presidents from Reagan to Trump. Part nonfiction thriller, part illuminating exploration of the moment the conflict between the U.S. and Iran turned violent, this is a gripping story of survival and resilience, set at the intersection of geopolitics, hubris, and impunity.

As Ghattas unravels the murder mystery, she makes the case for 1980s Beirut as the point of origin for the policies and people who continue to drive events in the Middle East today, from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leading up to the Iran-Israel-U.S. war of summer 2025.

With the nuance, clarity, and storytelling that made Black Wave an era-defining work on the Middle East, Ghattas delivers a riveting, deeply human saga--a must-read for understanding why this conflict continues to shape today's world.

About the Author

Kim Ghattas is a Middle East expert, author, and Emmy-award-winning journalist. She's a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine, a contributing editor for The Financial Times, and a regular guest on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. She was a Distinguished Inaugural Fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Global Politics. She previously reported for the BBC from the Middle East and Washington, DC. She is the author of Black Wave, a New York Times notable book on the Saudi-Iran rivalry, and of The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, a New York Times bestseller. She splits her time between her hometown in Beirut and writing desks around the world.