I was very interested in the clash of cultures and the history of the region, but I found the way the story was told didn't work for me. Maybe it was in issue due to author's own background as reporter and my own expectations around the movie hype (I still haven't seen it yet). Anyway, I was disappointed because I felt like the content could have yielded a much more satisfying book with deeper characterization rather than a series of fictionalized reports of historical events.