It was in his hometown of Siegen that the then fifteen-year-old began writing regularly for his local newspaper and then, while still a student in Cologne, was already working on the well-respected Feuilleton, art and literature supplement at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). His reports from war-torn locations across the globe proved to be bestsellers. Alongside his high quality literary work, he remains very much a political animal and compelling reporter.

His ability to shine a light on the multi-layered complexity of current events is incomparable as well as his gift to expose the underlying conflicts and behaviours, while mainstream politics continues to see only one course of action, or indeed none at all.

This book gathers for the first time his most important political articles written over the last thirty years and includes essays on terrorism in the Middle East, the European love of the barricades, and the conflict affecting Ukraine.