Best Kind of American

A work of geopolitical true crime following a family seeking the truth about a 1984 murder in Beirut, when the Iranian revolution collided with an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, from acclaimed and bestselling author Kim Ghattas.On the morning of January 18, 1984, Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, stepped out of the elevator in College Hall and was shot in the head by two gunmen. His murder, carried out in the midst of the Lebanese civil war—alongside an Israeli invasion, Palestinian guerrilla warfare, and the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks—made headlines for only three days. Four decades later, the question of why he was murdered, and by whom, still haunts Kerr’s family, including his son Steve, a now world-famous championship basketball player and NBA coach.In The Best Kind of American, Kim Ghattas tells the story of Kerr’s assassination as both a murder mystery and an international thriller. Through the lives of his family, colleagues, and those who may have betrayed him, the book ultimately tells the origin story of the decades-long confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, and how it first turned violent during Lebanon’s civil war. Beginning with America’s entanglement in Lebanon in the early 1980s, Ghattas shows how one murder set in motion a conflict—including bombings, hijackings, and hostages—whose repercussions continue to shape the Middle East and the world, culminating in the Iran-Israel-US military showdown in the summer of 2025.Essential and gripping, this is a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the roots of this modern conflagration.