At age twenty-five, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a twenty-first-century reporter-cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators. In startling detail, he describes the chaos, the violence, the never-ending threats of bomb and mortar attacks, and the front lines that can be a half mile from the Green Zone-indeed, that can be anywhere. This is a new kind of war: private security companies follow their own rules, or lack thereof; soldiers in combat get instant messages from their girlfriends and families; and members of the Louisiana National Guard watch Katrina’s decimation of their city on a TV in the barracks.
Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air America. A year into their courtship, Andi followed Michael to Iraq, taking a job with the National Democratic Institute. Their war-zone romance is another window into life in Baghdad. They call each other pet names; they make plans for the future; they fight, usually because each is fearful for the other’s safety; and they try to figure out how to get together, when it means putting bodyguards and drivers in jeopardy. Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer-a meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters that ends in catastrophe.
Searing, unflinching, and revelatory, I Lost My Love in Baghdad is both a raw, brave, brilliantly observed account of the war and a heartbreaking story of one life lost to it.

A posthumous debut novel–wry, wise, and outrageous–from award-winning journalist Michael Hastings, based on his experiences working for Newsweek

The year is 2002. Weekly news magazines dominate the political agenda in New York and Washington. A young journalist named Michael M. Hastings is an intern at the Magazine, wet behind the ears, the only one in the office who has actually read his coworkers’ books. He will stop at nothing to turn his internship into a full-time position and has figured out just who to impress: Nishant Patel, the international editor, and Sanders Berman, managing editor–both vying for the job of editor-in-chief. While Berman and Nishant try to one-up each other pontificating on cable news, A. E. Peoria–the one reporter seemingly doing any work–is having a career crisis. He has just returned from Chad, where instead of reporting on the genocide, he was told by his editors to focus on mobile-phone outsourcing, as it’s more relevant. Then suddenly, the United States invades Iraq–and all hell breaks loose.

As Hastings loses his na+>>vet+(r) about the journalism game, he must choose where his loyalties lie: with the men at the Magazine who can advance his career or with his friend in the field who is reporting the truth.

The Last Magazine is the debut novel from Michael Hastings, discovered in his files after his death in June 2013. Based on Hastings’ own experiences, it is funny, sharp, and fast-paced, a great book about the news game’s final days in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary, and Calvin Trillin’s Floater.

In June 2010, Michael Hastings published an article in Rolling Stone that made headlines around the world: In “The Runaway General,” he reported on a week he spent in Europe with General Stanley McChrystal, the revered soldier in charge of the war in Afghanistan.McChrystal and his staff’s unguarded remarks about the White House, our allies and the conduct of the war led President Obama to order McChrystal to the Oval Office, where he was fired unceremoniously. While Hastings’ reporting won him a prestigious Polk award and led to two Pentagon investigations, there is much more to his story than the indiscretions of Stanley McChrystal.In The Operators, Hastings, formerly the Baghdad bureau chief for Newsweek, takes the listener behind the diplomatic facades to paint a picture of nation-building gone awry. Hastings also takes us on patrol missions in Afghanistan, where he is embedded with American troops, and witnesses firsthand the madness, horror, and existential contradictions of Afghanistan. The Operators combines the acute reportage of a Sebastian Junger with the mad energy of a Michael Herr-it is the painful, powerful tale of a war that can never and will never be won.