this week, nicolas schmidle, fellow at the new america foundation, talks about his book, "the live or perish forever." it's an account of the two years he lived in pakistan beginning in 2006. mr. schmidle discusses

today with one of the most talented writers i've ever met in a very brave young man, author nicolas schmidle and his book is "to live or to perish forever" two tumultuous years in pakistan and they were in the tumultuous. welcome, agreed to see you. congratulations on a terrific book. as a fellow writer i can only be anne gurley jobless but i love you any way. this book has a great back story. at the ripe age of 27, newly married, you persuaded your wife a great idea for a honeymoon would be to go to pakistan and lived amongst the people for two years. we will set aside for now how your wife responded. you're still married so obviously it worked. but can you tell the background of this terrific narrative what pakistan is really like? you're nailed it. the people, the smells, the field in the air took me aback. >> guest: thanks, ralph. right at the time i was finishing graduate school in the summer of 2005i received a fellowship from the current world affairs which is a foundation funded by the crane foundation that you see the crane a logo on toilets are in the country and they send people o

we are speaking right now with a terrific young author, a brave young man, nicolas schmidle, author of "to live or to perish forever." and i would like to briefly move away from your adventures in pakistan and bangladesh to ask you look, this is remarkably mature and well-written book. where on earth did you learn to like this? >> guest: that's a good question. >> host: certainly not the u.s. school system. >> guest: that's very kind -- >> host: it's clean and clear. >> guest: i wrote something once and i can't profess having followed his advice to the letter t but i think it was in hemingway's nonfiction collection called by line and a sort of young apprentice of his said how do i learn to write, poppa and hemingway's response was you've got to read the classics because you've got to know -- you have to know what you are up against and journalists are very competitive in terms of the story but i don't think that they are that competitive in terms of the way they told the story. and so what i have always tried to do -- there were a lot of reporters in pakistan not actually in swat but