Human Scale: A Conversation with Lawrence Wright | WorldNow

In his new political thriller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright explores the human cost of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Human Scale tells the story of an Israeli cop and a Palestinian-American FBI agent joining forces to solve the murder of an Israeli police chief in the West Bank – set against the backdrop of the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.

Wright joins WorldNow with Jim Falk to discuss how the novel, which concludes on October 8th, 2023, underscores the human impact of this longstanding conflict. As he writes at the end of the book, “One cannot hope for an end to the strife without acknowledging the separate histories that each side claims.”

A longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Wright has spent decades reporting from the Middle East as a journalist, author, playwright, and novelist. He won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, his acclaimed nonfiction account of the rise of Al-Qaeda.

“The politics in this book are impossible to ignore; indeed, they’re the point. Wright is thorough in his recounting of key elements of the conflict.” – The New York Times

The details:

When: Tuesday, May 6th | 7:00PM ET
Where: Zoom Webinar | RSVP required

About the Book

The Human Scale by Lawrence Wright

In this sweeping, timely thriller, a Palestinian American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower and The End of October.

In his historically accurate novel, Lawrence Wright tells the story of the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict through richly-drawn characters: a Palestinian-American FBI agent, an anti-Arab Israeli police officer, family members with ties to Hamas, religious leaders, corrupt cops, and militants on both sides. Through these intersecting lives, Wright weaves an intricate tapestry that culminates in the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

More than a thriller, Wright’s novel explores the complex history between Israel and Palestine, revealing the tragic human scale of this long-standing conflict and offering a nuanced perspective on a tragedy that continues to shape the region and the world.

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Meet the Author

Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

He is the author of eleven nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.

Wright has published four novels, “Noriega: God’s Favorite” (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; “The End of October” (Knopf, 2020), a bestseller about a viral pandemic that came out right at the beginning of COVID; “Mr. Texas” (Knopf, 2023), which has been optioned as a limited streaming series; and his most recent novel, “The Human Scale,” released in the spring of 2025.

In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.

Wright wrote and performed another one-man show, “The Human Scale,” about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Many of the ideas developed in that play later evolved into the novel of the same name, published 15 years later.

In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including “Camp David,” about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and “Cleo,” about the making of the movie “Cleopatra.”

Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.

Meet the Host

Jim Falk is President Emeritus of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. Now residing in Santa Fe, NM, he is Vice Chairman of the Board of Global Santa Fe. In addition to hosting WorldNow with Jim Falk, Jim produces and hosts The Forum, a weekly talk show on KSFR-FM, Santa Fe Public Radio. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Hosts & Partners

WorldNow with Jim Falk is hosted by the World Affairs Council of Connecticut and Global Santa Fe.

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