Beslan
The Tragedy Of School No. 1
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Tim Phillips' book tells the human story of the siege - of the terrible toll that thirst, hunger and sleeplessness took on the hostages, of the bravery of those who dealt with the terrorists, such as the elderly headmistress of the school and the doctor who tried to relieve the suffering of the young children. Phillips also looks at the authorities' response to the siege and finds it severely wanting. He has spent time in Beslan researching the book, talking to those involved and those affected, listening to the conspiracy theories, and trying to set the events of September 2004 in their wider context of centuries of conflict and enmity in the Caucasus.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The strength of this examination of the deadly Beslan school siege by Chechen terrorists in southern Russia is Phillips's reporting. A scholar of the region who has worked as a translator for the BBC, Phillips extensively interviewed victims of the September 2004 siege and other townspeople to give a human face to the tragic incident, in which 1,200 people were held hostage for three days and more than 330 eventually killed. Phillips details the basic events of how the terrorists took over the school, the deterioration of the hostages' conditions during those three days, and the authorities' lack of coordination and competence in responding. The author also takes the current pulse of the town: readers will be surprised to find how little remembrance is paid to the tragedy in Beslan and in Russia at large. Phillips also gives a deep context to the events; he is not helped in this regard by the complexities of the region's history and the weak government investigations into the Beslan situation. He acknowledges these limitations and also that questions remain, including the nature of Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions during the crisis. Given those limitations, Phillips's debut is an admirable record of a tragedy rapidly being forgotten. B&w photos, 2 maps.
Customer Reviews
Wonderfully written
I remembered hearing about Beslan some ten years ago, and decided to look it up, just a few days after Tim's book was released to the iBook store. Varying from chapter to chapter between the hour-by-hour events of the siege, and the politics, countries and people involved, his book is an intense read. Some parts are genuinely very hard to get through, but I found that this book answered the hundreds of questions I've had about beslan. If it's a small slither of history that interests you, I don't think a better, more in depth and rounded account is available to the general public. Thanks, Tim.