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A Crusade for Justice in a Violent Land
by Ross Halperin
A high-octane true-crime story, Bear Witness follows two Christians who refuse to let fear or conventional wisdom stand in the way of their altruistic mission.
As young men, Kurt Ver Beek, an American sociologist, and Carlos Hernández, a Honduran schoolteacher, devoted their lives to helping the poor. But it wasn't until they moved to an extraordinarily dangerous neighborhood in Honduras that they came to a radical conclusion: The charity world was combating poverty incorrectly.
In gripping prose, journalist Ross Halperin chronicles how these two best friends became quasi vigilantes and charged into a series of life-and-death battles: first with the gang that terrorized their community, then with a notorious tycoon who commanded about a thousand-armed men, and finally with a police force whose corruption and brutality defied credulity. Their efforts made some of the most violent neighborhoods on earth safer and arguably improved the functioning of a national government, but in the process of pulling that off, they compromised their principles, precipitated collateral damage, and acquired their share of outraged critics.
A remarkable and dangerous feat of reportage, Bear Witness is a thrilling account of an unorthodox mission to establish justice in a place thought to be beyond the reach of the law.
"In this gripping work of investigative journalism, Halperin examines the risks, sacrifices, and criticisms these unlikely saviors endured in making their neighborhood a safer place to raise a family ... Halperin's skillful reporting and insight and his own risk-taking make Ver Beek and Hernández's story unforgettable." ―Booklist
"A compelling tale and the perfect doorway into the complex inner workings of the poorest country in Latin America, where people struggle for power and the rule of law is weak. Halperin's reporting is prodigious; Nueva Suyapa and its residents appear on the book's pages not as some faceless mass but mothers and fathers and sons and assassins and students and extortionists and sometimes several of those things all at the same time, always just trying to get by." ―Washington Post
"Kurt Ver Beek and Carlos Hernández are possibly the bravest people in the world and among the few who truly understand how homicide works... . Ross Halperin, a reporter who listens with his whole mind, is the one to tell [their story]. He's gone deep and found the insights that matter. Bear Witness will be required reading." ―Jill Leovy, author of Ghettoside
"This riveting book reads like a thriller―two friends trying to prevent murders in one of the most dangerous places on earth. But it's a true story, about not only the extreme danger they put themselves in, but also the nauseating moral quandaries they faced... . In Ross Halperin's nuanced, sharp-eyed, empathetic story, there are no clean hands."―Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning
"Ross Halperin's deep dive into one of the worst narco states in Latin America is poignant and chilling... . Halperin's understated prose is mesmerizing, and Bear Witness is a cautionary tale about where politics, corruption, and religion collide." ―Sally Denton, author of The Colony
This information about Bear Witness was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ross Halperin attended Harvard University and worked under Mark A. R. Kleiman, one of the world's leading criminal-justice scholars. He started reporting this story in 2018 and has since spent much of his time in Honduras.
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