Anand Giridharadas – författare

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN AND THE IRISH TIMES'Illuminating and entertaining . . . while the world seems to counsel despair, The Persuaders is animated by a sense of possibility' The New York TimesThe lifeblood of any free society is persuasion: changing other people's minds to enable real change. But America is suffering a crisis of faith in persuasion that is putting its democracy and the planet itself at risk. People increasingly write each other off instead of seeking to win each other over. Debates are framed in moralistic terms, with enemies battling the righteous. Movements for justice build barriers to entry, instead of on-ramps. Political parties focus on mobilizing the faithful rather than wooing the sceptical. And leaders who seek to forge coalition are labelled sell-outs.In The Persuaders best-selling author Anand Giridharadas takes us inside these movements and battles, seeking out the dissenters who continue to champion persuasion in an age of polarization. We meet a co-founder of Black Lives Matter; a leader of the feminist resistance to Trumpism; white parents at a seminar on raising adopted children of colour; Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; a team of door knockers with an uncanny formula for changing minds on immigration; and an ex-cult member turned QAnon deprogrammer.As they grapple with how to "call out" threats and injustices while "calling in" those who don't agree with them but just might one day, they point a way to healing, and changing, a broken society.

*The International Bestseller*'Superb, hugely enjoyable ... a spirited examination of the hubris and hypocrisy of the super-rich who claim they are helping the world' Aditya Chakrabortty, GuardianWhat explains the spreading backlash against the global elite? In this revelatory investigation, Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, showing how the elite follow a 'win-win' logic, fighting for equality and justice any way they can - except ways that threaten their position at the top. But why should our gravest problems be solved by consultancies, technology companies and corporate-sponsored charities instead of public institutions and elected officials? Why should we rely on scraps from the winners? Trenchant and gripping, this is an indispensable guide and call to action for elites and citizens alike.

A 2014 New York Times Book Review Notable Book and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year Imagine that a terrorist tried to kill you. If you could face him again, on your terms, what would you do?

Anand Giridharadas’s deeply moving new work of narrative non-fiction tells the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a former Bangladeshi Air Force officer who moved to America with a dream of starting a new life. That dream falters when, after 9/11, Mark Stroman, a self-declared "American terrorist" walked into the Dallas corner shop where Bhuiyan worked and shot him in the face, nearly ending his life. Then, a decade after the shooting, in a remarkable act of mercy, Bhuiyan forgave Stroman and fought a legal battle against Governor Rick Perry, in the name of Shariah law and the US Constitution, attempting to spare from execution the man who tried to kill him.The True American is about America’s love-hate relationship with immigrants, about the meeting of Islam and the West and about whether we choose who we become or let ourselves be hemmed in by history.