Godoff's Ghost Gains
by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 3/15/2004
Ann Godoff's new imprint, Penguin Press, has two reasons to celebrate—the first list was released in January and one of the books on that list, Ghost Wars, is its first national bestseller. Subtitled The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, it ranks below PW's top 15 nonfiction hardcovers, since we combine general nonfiction with advice/how-to titles; it's #18 on our list. Penguin Press did a 58,000-copy first printing and after four more trips to press, the book now has 84,000 copies in print. Embargoed because of its first-time reporting of the CIA's involvement in the covert wars in Afghanistan that gave rise to bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the book had a one-day February 23 laydown accompanied by a flurry of national media, including front-page excerpts in the Washington Post (where author Steve Coll is managing editor) and in Newsweek, and interviews on Dateline, the Discovery Channel and NPR's Fresh Air, and with Charlie Rose, Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, Paula Zahn, Dennis Miller and Diane Rehm. Coll is finishing up a six-city tour, but Penguin expects he will continue to be in demand for the national media regarding building news about bin Laden's whereabouts, assuring a long life for Ghost Wars.
