author of many books on subjects all over the-- literally all over the world, from colombia and pablo escobar, an account to d-day, to the killing of usama bin laden, many subjects. probably best known for blackhawk down, an account of the 1993 raid in somalia that led to two-u.s. army blackhawk helicopters being down over downtown mogadishu and the grueling 15-hour result. and the new book, which is out this week from atlantic monthly press is a very different scope, i'd say, than blackhawk down. it's also being made into a mini series already. the thing hasn't been out three days, and the producer and director of what's going to be between eight and ten hours in the end, of this mini series is michael mann and he has said this, i like this description. he says, in mark's book, there are no background people. people ab tracted into statistics or body counts. there's a sense that everybody is somebody as each is in the actuality of their own lives. the brilliance of bowden's narrative, achievement of intervowing hundreds of people on all sides and making their human stories his foundation is