The #1 New York Times Bestseller The "riveting" ( Wall Street Journal ) account of the 1993 operation in Mogadishu, Somalia--the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily-armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded. Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Mark Bowden's minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle. "Amazing. . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer "One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written."-- USA Today " Black Hawk Down is destined to become a military classic." -- The Washington Times "Amazing . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable. . . . The individual stories are woven together in such a compelling and expert fashion, the narrative flows so seamlessly, that it's hard to imagine that this is not fiction. And, in the end, what makes this book stand out from the current crop of nonfiction thrillers is that its impact and significance are so very much greater than the sum of its very many parts." --Michael Maren, The Philadelphia Inquirer (front cover review) "In Black Hawk Down , Mark Bowden has reconstructed this extremely violent episode with amazing vividness and detail. The reader can visualize the action, smell the dust and sweat and the reek of explosives, and even enter into the exultation, fear, rage, pain, confusion, and exhaustion of the combatants. Bowden never loses sight of the human qualities and reactions that are, in the end, decisive in battle. Because he was able to interview survivors on both sides relatively soon after the action, Bowden's story has a vitality and freshness usually lacking in accounts of combat. He was written an extraordinary book. It is also a shocking one." --Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books "In Black Hawk Down , author Mark Bowden presents a riveting, minute-by-minute account of the battle, told from the perspective of the soldiers who fought for their lives in the narrow, dusty streets. . . . One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written." --Kirk Spitzer, USA Today "Riveting." --Mark Yost, The Wall Street Journal "A vivid, immediate and unsparing narrative." --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post "With Black Hawk Down , Mark Bowden ably details that grim action in a fast-paced factual account that reads like a non-fiction thriller. . . . Through exhaustive research and interviews with the survivors, Bowden masterfully transcribes not just the swirling chaotic events, but also the heightening of charged emotions as the battle intensified. . . . an engrossing read, a well-told tale of modern combat." --Scott Taylor, The Globe and Mail (Toronto) "One of the finest combat reconstructions in the annals of warfare. . . . The result of Bowden's efforts is a detailed after-action report that stands in a league with Shelby Foote's stirring Civil War diary Shiloh --rare in its completeness, compassion and reverence for the valor of young men cast into extraordinary circumstances." --Jim Haner, The Baltimore Sun " Black Hawk Down ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . Anybody who has spent a day with contemporary America's warriors will recognize immediately the authenticity of Black Hawk Down . It's an intimate, minute-by-minute chronicle of suffering, futility and courage, infused with the Gen-X-speak of the 20-something soldiers, who talk about their profession as an extreme sport, way cool until the killing starts." --Bob Shacochis, The New York Observer "Bowden has crafted the quintessential story of men in combat. . . . If Black Hawk Down were fiction, we'd rank it up there with the best war novels, The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, or The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. There are woefully few (Stephen Ambrose's work on World War II may come close) nonfiction books about combat with which to compare it. Bowden captures the essence of combat--the sights and sounds, the terror and the determination, the sheer will to survive. It's an intense and impressive work." --Tom Walker, The Denver Post "Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down is a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the climactic battle in the short, ill-fated American military campaign in Mogadishu. . . . His acco