The Tightening Dark

An American Hostage in Yemen

Contributors

By Sam Farran

By Benjamin Buchholz

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$28.00

Price

$35.00 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 27, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

This riveting memoir follows a Lebanese-Muslim-American and thirty-year US Marine veteran who suffered a six-month ordeal at the hands of a brutal regime in Yemen—and remained loyal to his country through it all.

As air strikes carpeted Yemen's capital, Sam Farran was one of only a few Americans in the war-ravaged country. He was there to conduct security assessments for a variety of international firms. Days after his arrival, he was brutally seized and taken hostage by Houthi rebels. Sam would spend the next six months suffering a horrific ordeal that would test his endurance, his loyalty and his very soul.
 
Every day his captors asked him—as a fellow Muslim—to betray America and his Marine heritage in exchange for his freedom. Would he give in to the Houthis and return to his Middle Eastern roots? In the end–and despite daily threats to his life—Sam found the strength to resist, and came out of his ordeal with an increased sense of being, foremost, a US Marine.
 
The Tightening Dark is an intimate, riveting and inspiring memoir of heroic strength, courage, survival and commitment to country. And a reminder that the best parts of the American dream are the dreamers—those who pledge to being American, regardless of where they are born.

Genre:

  • “Like so many diplomats and Marines around the world, Sam Farran’s decades’ long career involved tremendous risk. This story captures the riveting nightmare of the dreadful scenario we all train for, and hope never happens: being taken hostage.”
    Ali Soufan, author of The Black Banners and prominent terrorism expert
  • “Sam Farran, like so many other Marines and servicemembers of all kinds, fought to keep America safe, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. As a Muslim boy who immigrated to Dearborn, Michigan, he represents the best of America, its diversity, its open arms, and its opportunity. Sam's powerful story is worthy of your time.”
    Tom Ridge, first Secretary of Homeland Security and 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania
  • “This gripping story sheds important light on one of the Middle East’s most entrancing but troubled countries. It should be added to the reading list of anyone seeking to understand Yemen’s recent turmoil and its ongoing struggle to emerge from conflict and poverty.”
    Matthew H. Tueller, former US Ambassador to Yemen and current US Ambassador to Iraq
  • “Farran offers insightful details about the complex situation in Yemen and the larger forces at play in the Middle East. This is an illuminating look behind the headlines.”
    Publishers Weekly
  • "A fine memoir and a disturbing hostage drama with a happy ending"
    Kirkus Reviews
  • "An interesting glimpse into Farran's bifurcated identity."
    Booklist

On Sale
Jul 27, 2021
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Hachette Books
ISBN-13
9780306922718

Sam Farran

About the Author

Haisam “Sam” Farran was born in Lebanon but moved to the US at age ten. He joined the US Marines and served in many locations and in many roles around the world, culminating as a Warrant Officer working from the Military Attaché Office in Yemen, just after the bombing of the USS Cole in the early 2000s. Sam fell in love with Yemen and returned time and again to work there as an analyst and facilitator for US and other companies. Sam married a Yemeni woman and now lives in Beirut.

Benjamin Buchholz served in Yemen as the Chief of Attaché Operations at the US Embassy during and up to the Houthi overthrow of the Yemeni government. He is the author of the novel One Hundred and One Nights, the non-fiction book Private Soldiers, and with his wife a children’s book, B is for Bunker. Ben lives in San Diego with his wife Lauren Avenius and two sons.

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Benjamin Buchholz

About the Author

Benjamin Buchholz is the author of a book entitled Private Soldiers about his Wisconsin National Guard unit the year-long deployment to southern Iraq. He was stationed with his family in Oman from 2010 to 2011 and currently lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is pursuing a graduate degree in Middle East Security Studies. One Hundred and One Nights is his first novel.

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