Product Description

War Correspondent, Faith Zanetti, is posted to Jerusalem for her first assignment, following in the footsteps of her journalist father. As she settles into the American colony with the hard-drinking, irreverent circle of foreign correspondents, an odyssey begins in which nothing is what it seems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1463917 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

January Magazine (The Rap Sheet ) April 2004
"From The Bad News Bible's very first page, author Blundy's pointed, caustic style whisks the reader.....

From the Author
This book is about Faith Zanetti, a war correspondent, who is loosely based on me. I say loosely because I am a housewife who doesn't smoke or drink and she is a war correspondent who chain smokes and drinks a lot of neat vodka. She is brave and funny and beautiful and in this book she's in Jerusalem investigating a friend's violent death and reporting on the ongoing war. Faith and her friends spend most of their time in the bar and they are all irreverent and hilarious. I'm an insider here to the extent that my dad was a war correspondent and I spent a lot of time when I was little sitting in the bar at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem where this book's set, listening the war stories and the gossip. Dad was killed in El Salvador in 1989. I was a journalist myself for ten years, mostly for the Times, and I was the Times correspondent in Moscow in the late nineties. Hope you'll love the book! Anna.

About the Author
Anna Blundy has worked in the news media since leaving Oxford in 1992, from doing the photocopying at ABC news in Moscow to being the Moscow bureau chief for the Times. She has published two books, EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE, a memoir of her father, a war correspondent who was killed by a sniper in El Salvador in 1989, and ONLY MY DREAMS, a novel set in England and Russia. She lives in Italy with her husband, Horatio, and children Lev and Hope. Her proudest achievement is having been a blues singer in a Moscow band in the early 1990s and she wishes she was more like her heroine, Faith Zanetti.

Customer Reviews

bad news indeed
While this story starts out well and the description of the life of reporters in Israel is interesting and well done, the rest of this author's descriptions are lacking and make me feel that perhaps the israel she visited if at all when writing this book was the Israel of thirty years ago...While the story itself is very "chick lit" it has its moments, and was fine to pass the the time on a flight or trip, but I wasnt enthralled by her descriptions of Israel - they were mediocre at best. I live in Israel and am unable to find any likeness in her description and the place I live. Unless the author's point of entry was Eilat I fail to see how the roads could be dusty and desert like, it does not rain in Israel during the summer, the heat while difficult is in fact exactly like spending summer in New York, the time difference for the author's information is two not three hours, Jerusalem's streets are not empty or deserted, although it is true that in recent months the feel of the place has changed for obvious reasons. These small points may not have affected other readers' enjoyment, but time after time she made mistakes that made this book an annoying read....

Entertaining, but...
The Bad News Bible is one of those books ideal for passing the time on long train journeys. It's not too complicated to read, and kept me turning the pages. Also, since Ms. Blundy has actually been a foreign correspondent like her main character, I'm assuming that she paints an accurate portrait of life in that profession.

However, I also suspect that Faith Zanetti, Blundy's ballsy reporter with a troubled past, is at least partially a Mary Jane figure for Blundy herself. Zanetti never seems to get emotional over anything, despite the fact that everyone around her seems to be dropping dead.

The setting, in Israel, and focusing on the Palestinian conflict, is an interesting one not often covered in fiction. Another book I've read is "Damascus Gate", which also deals with a reporter. However, where Damascus Gate gave a fairly accurate picture of Israeli, and particularly Jerusalem, life, "The Bad News Bible" could quite possibly have been written without ever setting foot in Israel.

So, an entertaining read, but neither a great work of literature, nor a passable guide to the country. I can't help thinking that the actual "Bad News Bible" referred to in the text (telling reporters what to do if the worst should happen) would be a much more interesting read.

accurate
having had the pleasure of staying two nights at the american colony hotelas part of my fly drive package to israel that also included five nightsin eilat and that is another and sad story i can vouch for anna's accuracyvis a vis the colony and especially the bar where the journalists meet.not being one of them i was taken aback by the courtesy and kindness theyshowed me an ordinary widow who has never been anywhere like this. upon myreturn home after the holiday i rushed to buy her book. it is not myposition to say she is right to condemn the journalists as hard drinkingand fast living. all that is over my head. as a travel guide the bookscores highly and i recommend it highly to all who seek an off the wallview of the Holy Land.