Where the West Ends: Stories from the Middle East, the Balkans, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus
Michael J. Totten is an award-winning journalist and prize-winning author whose very first book,The Road to Fatima Gate, won the Washington Institute Book Prize.He  has taken road trips to war zones, sneaked into police states under false pretenses, dodged incoming rocket and mortar fire, stayed in some of the worst hotels ever built anywhere, slipped past the hostile side of a front line, been accused of being a spy, received death threats from terrorists, and been mugged by the cops. When he's not doing or writing about these things, he writes novels.His work has appeared in theNew York Times, theWall Street Journal, andThe New Republicamong numerous other publications, and he's a contributing editor atWorld AffairsandCity Journal.  He has reported widely from the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, and the Balkans. A former resident of Beirut, he lives in  Oregon with his wife and two cats.