Featuring
Neil MacFarquhar
The New York Times UN Bureau Chief
Neil MacFarquhar spent his boyhood in Qadhafi’s Libya. Fluent in Arabic, he covered the Middle East for the AP before joining The New York Times, where he served as Cairo Bureau Chief and then United Nations Bureau Chief.
After nearly 20 years of reporting from Tehran to Marrakesh, MacFarquhar believes that “all the violent news from the region … the bloodshed and constant upheaval that capture the most attention, have become barriers limiting our perspective on the Middle East.” His new book, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday, challenges the West’s assumptions about the Middle East and describes, with wit and warmth, an Arab world and Iran adjusting to the pressures of modernity and struggling to reform the region — in their distinct way.
MacFarquhar is a graduate of Stanford University. He also is the author of The Sand Café, about Gulf War correspondents marooned in a Saudi hotel.
A reception and book signing will follow in the Great Hall.
Free and open to the public.