The Girl from Kathmandu

March 1, 2018
How war profiteering in the Middle East tore apart a village in the Himalayan foothills.In 2004, writes London-based Businessweek senior international correspondent Simpson, not long after the U.S. invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a recruiter came calling in Kathmandu, ostensibly looking for workers at a luxury hotel in Jordan. In fact, those who answered the call were placed in the hands of people such as a former dry cleaner who ran a so-called body shop in Amman: "If you needed the 'bodies' of menial laborers, you went to Ali al-Nadi." So it was that American military contractors in Iraq found their way to al-Nadi's door to fill their ranks, and a dozen men from that Nepali village found themselves on the way to enriching everyone but themselves--but briefly, for on their way to the contractor's camp within a vast U.S. air base, they were kidnapped by Islamist militants who declared the Nepalis "infidels" inasmuch as they were working in the service of the "Crusaders." The Nepalis were executed, leaving it to their survivors to wonder how they had ended up in an American war zone in the first place. The answer, untangled by Kamala Magar, the widow of one of the Nepalis--whom the author interviewed numerous times in 2005, 2013, 2014, and 2016--came to implicate the largest American military contractor in Iraq in a sordid chain of human trafficking. Of course, the contractor continually denied the allegations throughout a long process of legal discovery, parts of which went all the way to the Supreme Court. Suffice it to say that, given the choice of ruling in favor of an utterly commendable Nepali widow of questionable legal standing but with an unflagging commitment to justice or a multibillion-dollar corporation with unlimited legal funds, the courts did not often honor the ideals of the law.A powerful work of investigative journalism, one that speaks volumes about the business of war and of human slavery alike.

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March 15, 2018
At the height of the Iraq War, Jeet Magar and 11 of his countrymen went into debt to secure employment in the Middle East, where wages were better than in their native Nepal. They thought they were bound for work at a luxury hotel in Jordan; instead, they were sold into menial labor at a U.S. military base in Iraq operated by Halliburton subsidiary KBR. They ended up being kidnapped and executed en route by Islamic extremists, and their murders were videotaped and broadcast online, catching the attention of investigative-journalist Simpson. As he uncovered the labyrinthine and corrupt supply chain of human labor, he met Jeet's young widow, Kamala, whose life in an impoverished Nepali village became infinitely harder after Jeet's death. Along with a team of intrepid human rights' attorneys, Simpson battled one of the world's most powerful corporations to gain justice for Jeet and compensation for his widow. The ensuing court battle and Kamala's personal journey of redemption is a mind-boggling story that champions courage, perseverance, and resilience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

April 15, 2018

Investigative journalist Simpson (Bloomberg Businessweek) investigates the seamy world of human trafficking for answers as to how 12 men from Nepal, destined for work at a luxury hotel in Amman, Jordan, ended up as subcontractors on an American military base in Iraq where they were kidnapped and murdered by Islamic extremists. The shocking video of their executions was for some of their family, the first they'd learned of their loved one's death and even their presence in Iraq. Amid the story of human rights lawyers taking on an international corporation, Halliburton, whose governmental ties and questionable business practices made the case a challenge, Simpson shares the story of Kamala Magar, a new mother and a widow at 19. Living in a Nepali society that views widowhood as stigmatized, Kamala had the fortitude to abandon expectations and rebuild her life, even traveling to the United States to seek justice for her husband. VERDICT A hard look at the global web of trafficking and human rights violations and the dark treatment of widows in Nepal, paired with the uplifting journey of one who defied her destiny.--Heidi Uphoff, Sandia National Laboratories, NM

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018

In August 2004, 12 men who left Nepal to work in a five-star luxury hotel in Jordan instead found that they had been subcontracted by the U.S. government to build an American military base in Iraq. They were subsequently murdered by Islamic extremists. Award-winning journalist Simpson relates how the widow of one of the men sought justice for them all. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.