By: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
One Day in 1993, high up in the world's most inhospitable mountains, Greg Mortenson wandered lost and alone, broken in body and spirit, after a failed attempt to climb K2, the world's deadliest peak. When the people of an impoverished village in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya took him in and nursed him back to health, Mortenson made an impulsive promise: He would return one day and build them a school.
Three Cups of Tea
Published by Viking, the Penguin Group (USA), Inc., 2006 (Purchase)
By: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Viking / Hardcover / 338 pages / $25.95
ISBN: 0670034827
Other sites where this book is avalible: amazon.com / barnesandnoble.com
About Three Cups of Tea
Although he was a homeless "climbing bum" living out of his aging Buick in Berkeley, California, Mortenson sold what few possessions he had to launch one of the most remarkable humanitarian campaigns of our time.
From eerie blue glaciers, where snow leopards stalk their prey, to high-altitude fundamentalist villages, where the faith is as severe as the surroundings, and down the deadly opium trails of Afghanistan at war, Three Cups of Tea traces Mortenson's decade-long odyssey to build schools, especially for girls, throughout the region that gave birth to the Taliban and sanctuary to Al Qaeda. While he wages war with the root causes of terrorism-poverty and ignorance-by providing both boys and girls with a balanced, nonextremist education, Mortenson must survive a kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, death threats from Americans who consider him a traitor, and wrenching separations from his family.
Today, as the director of the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson has built fifty-five schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan's poorest communities. And as this real-life Indiana Jones from Montana crisscrosses the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush fighting to keep these schools functioning, he provides not only hope to tens of thousands of children, but living proof that one passionately dedicated person truly can change the world.
"If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else, then we will be no safer than we were before 9/11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs." -Greg Mortenson, Parade Magazine
Greg Mortenson, director of the Central Asia Institute responsible for building 55 schools in impoverished villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan, received more than eighteen thousand letters in response to his statement in Parade Magazine and brought about worldwide awareness of the need for education in war-torn countries.
Now Mortenson and celebrated journalist David Oliver Relin, winner of over forty national awards, recount the events that led to the launch of the Central Asia Institute and delve into the politics involved in creating these schools in Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations ... One School at a Time.
Praise For Three Cups of Tee
"Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts."
-Publisher's Weekly, Started Review
"An unlikely diplomat scores points for America in a corner of the world hostile to all things American-and not without reason... This inspiring, adventure-filled book makes that case admirably."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time. Greg Mortenson's dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it's proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world."
-Tom Brokaw
"Greg Mortenson represents the best of America. He's my hero. And after you read Three Cups of Tea, he'll be your hero too."
-U.S. Representative Mary Bono (R-Calif.)
"Three Cups of Tea is beautifully written. It is also a critically important book at this time in history. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan are both failing their students on a massive scale. The work Mortenson is doing, providing the poorest students with a balanced education, is making them much more difficult for the extremist madrassas to recuit."
-Ahmed Rashid, best-selling author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
Find out more about Greg Mortenson at his websites, http://www.gregmortenson.com / http://www.threecupsoftea.com
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Greg Mortenson is the director of the Central Asia Institute. A former mountaineer and military veteran, he spends several months each year building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
David Oliver Relin is a globe-trotting journalist who has won more than forty national awards for his writing and editing. A former teaching/writing fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a frequent contributor to Parade and Skiing Magazine.
