If you need to escape the drudgery of daily life, one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do so is to curl up with a good book. Many people love reading thrillers and crime novels because of the action and suspense these provide. With terrorism fiction you not only get thrilling reading but they often provide food for thought too, especially if you're interested in politics.
Definitions of what terrorism actually is, vary. Some people say that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. However, the common thread to the groups or individuals labeled as terrorists seems to be that they use acts or threats of violence to spread fear, so that their political goals can be met.
Novels with espionage as theme are often great sources of stories about terrorists. Tom Clancy, for instance, is best known for his series of novels where the main character is Jack Ryan, a secret agent in the United States. Ryan often has to stop terrorists in a day's work, like in 'Patriot Games' as well as 'The Sum of all Fears'.
Terrorists aren't necessarily all male. Women have been involved in acts of terror since the beginning and someone like Leila Khaled, who hijacked planes for the Palestinian cause, became a cult heroine. John le Carre wrote 'The Little Drummer Girl' about an actress who becomes involved in the Palestinian liberation struggle initially to infiltrate a terrorist group but then because she comes to believe in the cause.
While Palestinian liberation has long been a favorite theme in the genre, many writers have also looked to Northern Ireland for inspiration. The actions of the Irish Republican Army have often been called terrorist acts. Books like Jack Higgins' 'A Prayer Before Dying' revolve around members of this organization and how they deal with the violence they've been responsible for.
In South Africa in the Seventies and Eighties, the apartheid government and its allies called almost anybody involved in acts to bring about true democracy as terrorists. Several novels dealing with the fight against apartheid also explore terrorism as a theme. One of the best of these is South African author Andre Brink's 'An Act of Terror', originally written in Afrikaans, about an Afrikaner who becomes involved in the armed liberation struggle.
Doris Lessing, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature, is the author of 'The Good Terrorist', about a group of very liberal but naive young people in Britain who decide to become terrorists. They aren't fighting for a specific cause but for a more general ideology. In around the 1970s, there were several similar groups all across Europe and the USA. The Red Brigades of Italy, the Red Army Faction or Baader-Meinhof Group of West Germany and the Symbionese Liberation Army of the United States are the most notorious. It was the latter who kidnapped Patty Hearst and got her to join them.
As long as there are terrorist groups, there will be novels about them. A good place to find terrorism fiction is online but bookstores and libraries will also have a selection. This theme indeed makes for gripping reading, so be sure to switch off your phone, close the door, get some snacks and escape for a few hours into a world of intrigue.
Definitions of what terrorism actually is, vary. Some people say that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. However, the common thread to the groups or individuals labeled as terrorists seems to be that they use acts or threats of violence to spread fear, so that their political goals can be met.
Novels with espionage as theme are often great sources of stories about terrorists. Tom Clancy, for instance, is best known for his series of novels where the main character is Jack Ryan, a secret agent in the United States. Ryan often has to stop terrorists in a day's work, like in 'Patriot Games' as well as 'The Sum of all Fears'.
Terrorists aren't necessarily all male. Women have been involved in acts of terror since the beginning and someone like Leila Khaled, who hijacked planes for the Palestinian cause, became a cult heroine. John le Carre wrote 'The Little Drummer Girl' about an actress who becomes involved in the Palestinian liberation struggle initially to infiltrate a terrorist group but then because she comes to believe in the cause.
While Palestinian liberation has long been a favorite theme in the genre, many writers have also looked to Northern Ireland for inspiration. The actions of the Irish Republican Army have often been called terrorist acts. Books like Jack Higgins' 'A Prayer Before Dying' revolve around members of this organization and how they deal with the violence they've been responsible for.
In South Africa in the Seventies and Eighties, the apartheid government and its allies called almost anybody involved in acts to bring about true democracy as terrorists. Several novels dealing with the fight against apartheid also explore terrorism as a theme. One of the best of these is South African author Andre Brink's 'An Act of Terror', originally written in Afrikaans, about an Afrikaner who becomes involved in the armed liberation struggle.
Doris Lessing, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature, is the author of 'The Good Terrorist', about a group of very liberal but naive young people in Britain who decide to become terrorists. They aren't fighting for a specific cause but for a more general ideology. In around the 1970s, there were several similar groups all across Europe and the USA. The Red Brigades of Italy, the Red Army Faction or Baader-Meinhof Group of West Germany and the Symbionese Liberation Army of the United States are the most notorious. It was the latter who kidnapped Patty Hearst and got her to join them.
As long as there are terrorist groups, there will be novels about them. A good place to find terrorism fiction is online but bookstores and libraries will also have a selection. This theme indeed makes for gripping reading, so be sure to switch off your phone, close the door, get some snacks and escape for a few hours into a world of intrigue.
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