A fascinating book which gives background about the vast Bin Laden family. It gives incredible detail about the family structure and dynamics, in particular the difficulty managing the Western influence on a Muslim family. What it does not do is tell you what made Osama the man he is now. The focus is clearly the Bin Laden family, it addresses Osama in that context. Excellent non-fiction read. ( )

Steve Coll's books are reliably well-written, well-researched, and both deep and broad. Subject matter that could be incomprehensible, with so many unfamiliar dates, locations, names and events, is made clear through his engaging language and his ability to focus the reader in on a narrative.

I was expecting a book a bit more upon the lines of Ghost Wars, a description of history and policy leading towards September 11th, and instead I found something more like a family biography. It was a surprise, but a welcome one. If I'd ever been asked if I thought I should know about Mohamed, Abdullah (and Abdullah and Abdullah), Salem, Ghalib, Khaled, Yeslam, Bakr and Randa bin Laden, I would have said no. Yet learning about all these individuals has been fascinating.

It is easy to stereotype individuals from unfamiliar cultures, to lump all Saudi Arabians or Yemenis or Afghanis into one large box, but the diversity of the bin Laden family shows that the confluence of religion, technology, politics and geography can result in stunningly different personalities, attitudes and beliefs even in the members of a single family.

Valuable reading and a fascinating look into another culture. I've only just finished it (I personally tend to read quickly and then digest at leisure), and believe it will be worth going back to this book repeatedly for deeper understanding. ( )

Though the narrative glides along like a novel, I soon found myself in unfamiliar territory. Essentially, I had very little prior knowledge to provide context to my reading. After a while, I realized that I had shifted to textbook reading because this biography of an enormous family in an exotic land was loaded with learning for this reader.
I searched for and printed two maps of the Middle East to help me coordinate to the settings in the book. In fact, that is a suggestion I would make to the author. Including maps might be very helpful to readers who are not knowledgeable about that part of the world. I know that maps helped me very much!
This story is absolutely fantastic in its international scope, wealth beyond imagination, political and religious intrigue, and cast of characters. The only factor that tops all of that is that it is all chillingly true. Read an excerpt here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st... ( )

As you would expect from the author of Ghost Wars. Well, probably not quite as definitive as that book. Do you really need to know all these bin Ladens? Surely not in this copious detail.

But if you want a feel for how Saudi Arabia developed in the 20th century; the story of Osama bin Laden's father, who walked out of Yemen as a boy and into Riyadh in the 1920's, how from a laborer he worked his way up; the effect of war on the economy, etc. ...well, a book like this is the next best thing to a novel.

Then there's the story of the next generation's leader, Salem, Osama's older brother. He was among the siblings educated in England and the US from a young age--Western girlfriends, Western male friends, mind-boggling extravagance, industrial strength shopper, airplane collector (he died flying an ultra light in Texas), prankster, bad singer, a strange kind of investor (nothing in stocks ..).

Then you get the other brother, a former Florida engineering student, who runs the empire today. There's always more you want to know about the members running things today, but I doubt anyone is going to learn more details in the foreseeable future.

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