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Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk Paperback – 28 February 2023
by Lara Marlowe (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (171)
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Review
Part biography, part autobiography, part love story and part a forceful condemnation of war, this is a fascinating and captivating book ― Irish Times
This book is deeply honest and true, and reveals so much about Robert Fisk, his work and his engagement with the world. He and Lara Marlowe worked on the frontline of human experience, braided together by love and language and war. This is a portrait of a couple bound in a lovesong, which like all such songs confronts the vagaries of leaving, longing and loss -- Colum McCann
This is a superb account of the life and work of the best reporter I have ever known. Robert Fisk was unswerving in his defence of the weak and the powerless and in exposing the crimes of governments past and present. This book shows how he did it -- Patrick Cockburn
A beautiful book that chronicles the story of two people whose relationship and careers were shaped by the journalism of a different era. It is full of pain and longing but also joy, adventure, and excitement -- Janine di Giovanni, Foreign Policy
A gripping tale of savagery and courage, of history in the making, intertwined with rich personal reminiscences - and through it all, a captivating portrait of the life and work of Robert Fisk, a truly great journalist -- Noam Chomsky
Working alongside Robert Fisk was a joy - it was life on a roller-coaster, full of stories, insight, and boundless energy. His fierce independence was legendary: he looked for the raw truth, however uncomfortable -- Kate Adie
A vivid memoir of life during wartime with a journalistic legend ― Sunday Business Post
Saga of love, adventure, courage, and heartache ― Irish Examiner
This is at once a portrait of a remarkable man, the story of a Middle East broken by its own divisions and outside powers, and a moving account of a relationship in dark times ― Clare Champion
A genuinely 'unputdownable' and moving story, a fierce rebuke of violence and war, the arrogance and indifference of others. It is a great testament to the victims and survivors of conflict, and to the absolute necessity and importance of journalists such as Fisk and Marlowe -- David Peace
Book Description
A poignant love affair against a background of war, revolution and invasion: two passionate, committed foreign correspondents find each other as the Middle East falls apart.
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A poignant love affair against a background of war, revolution and invasion- two passionate, committed foreign correspondents find each other as the Middle East falls apart.
The Irish Times bestseller
'A gripping tale of savagery and courage' Noam Chomsky
'Fascinating and captivating' Irish Times
'A beautiful book... Full of pain and longing but also joy, adventure, and excitement' Janine di Giovanni
'A superb account of the life and work of the best reporter I have ever known' Patrick Cockburn
When Lara Marlowe met Robert Fisk in 1983 in Damascus, he was already a famous war correspondent. She was a young American reporter who would become a renowned journalist in her own right. For the next twenty years, they were lovers, husband and wife and friends, occasionally angry and estranged from one another, but ultimately reconciled. They learned from each other and from the people in the ruined world they reported from- Lebanon, torn apart by a vicious civil war as well as Israeli and Syrian occupations; Iran, where they were the only journalists to interview the Middle East's chief hostage-taker and dispatcher of suicide bombers; the Islamist revolt that claimed up to 200,000 lives in Algeria; the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and two US-led wars on Iraq. This is at once a portrait of a remarkable man, the story of a Middle East broken by its own divisions and outside powers, and a moving account of a relationship in dark times.
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Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk
Lara Marlowe
4.30
292 ratings30 reviews
The Irish Times bestseller 'A gripping tale of savagery and courage' Noam Chomsky 'Fascinating and captivating' Irish Times 'A beautiful book... Full of pain and longing but also joy, adventure, and excitement' Janine di Giovanni 'A superb account of the life and work of the best reporter I have ever known' Patrick CockburnWhen Lara Marlowe met Robert Fisk in 1983 in Damascus, he was already a famous war correspondent. She was a young American reporter who would become a renowned journalist in her own right. For the next twenty years, they were lovers, husband and wife and friends, occasionally angry and estranged from one another, but ultimately reconciled. They learned from each other and from the people in the ruined world they reported Lebanon, torn apart by a vicious civil war as well as Israeli and Syrian occupations; Iran, where they were the only journalists to interview the Middle East's chief hostage-taker and dispatcher of suicide bombers; the Islamist revolt that claimed up to 200,000 lives in Algeria; the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and two US-led wars on Iraq. This is at once a portrait of a remarkable man, the story of a Middle East broken by its own divisions and outside powers, and a moving account of a relationship in dark times.
GenresBiographyHistoryMemoirWarNonfictionJournalismAudiobook
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449 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2021
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About the author
Lara Marlowe8 books17 followers
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Lara Marlowe is an American journalist and author, who is currently US correspondent for The Irish Times, after having spent many years as the paper's Paris correspondent. Marlowe also spend 15 years as a journalist for Time Magazine.
Born in California, Marlowe holds a B.A. in French from UCLA, a master's in international relations from Oxford, and also spent a year of study at the Sorbonne.
She often reported from Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion. She worked previously for Time Magazine as their Beirut correspondent, and has been a guest for many other broadcast and print media. For her work she was made Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2006.
She is a regular contributor to Newstalk 106 in Ireland.
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Marina
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December 21, 2021
An intimate portrait of a genius war correspondent as seen through his first wife’s lens. The book is both Lara Marlow’s memoir of her career in journalism and of her relationship with Robert Fisk, and how the two developed in parallel.
I was somewhat fatigued by the historical present tense and found the chronology confusing as the narration jumped back and forth. I also wish that the events recounted in Chapter 11 which describes the breakdown of their marriage had instead been interwoven in the earlier narrative.
But overall I very much enjoyed the book. Marlow’s voice is tender and sensitive. Her portrayal of Fisk as a ladies’ man and a hopeless romantic came as a suprise. It was fascinating to see that side of this intrepid journalist. The insider’s view of how governments as well as media operate filled me with dismay. (I regretted subscribing to TIME magazine for several years in the past.) And their experiences reporting from war-torn countries confirm Fisk’s view of war as the total failure of the human spirit.
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Ted Farrell
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June 28, 2022
Not a biography of Robert Fisk, nor an autobiography, but it throws a lot of light on both remarkable characters.excelleng book, hard to stomach some of the awful scenes described. Leaves one wondering how could anyone be a war correspondent, but we owe a lot to the honest ones like Robert and Lara.
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David White
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January 8, 2022
In 2010, Irish Times foreign correspondent Lara Marlowe brought out a memoir called “The Things I’ve Seen”. While delighted Marlowe had brought out a book, I was disappointed it was mostly reprints of previously published articles, rather than a truer memoir.
I was interested in reading more from Marlowe as she is an excellent reporter, and illuminated multiple conflicts in the Middle East for “Irish Times” readers. She was also married to Robert Fisk, probably THE outstanding Middle East journalist, and the two travailed the various conflicts together for their respective outlets.
Fisk, who passed away in 2020, was a brilliant journalist and an authority on the Middle East. He was truly on the side of the oppressed and didn’t care what institutional feathers he ruffled. As Marlowe quotes him “As a journalist, you have got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer”.
I’ve now got the book I wanted in 2010. It’s a brilliant account of Marlowe’s career in journalism but also of her time with Fisk, both professionally and personally. It charts the ups and downs on both fronts. The horrors of unjust wars with terrible civilian casualties in Lebanon and Iraq, to their own romance and ultimate divorce.
The book chronicles Marlowe and Fisk’s extensive time in Lebanon in the 1980’s, where the threat of kidnapping is ever present. Both then cover Desert Storm in 1991, and subsequently Algeria in the 1990s, during the complex and devastating civil war (“The Black Decade). Fisk and Marlowe then cover the dreadful wars in the Balkans after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Post 9/11 they chart the illegal and calamitous Iraq war.
Weaved throughout these conflicts is the story of their own relationship and it’s ultimate downfall. Even after they separated, they remained friends and wrote and spoke to each other with affection.
This is Marlowe’s tribute to Fisk, but a wonderful and fitting memoir to them both. An excellent read.
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Bernie
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January 3, 2023
It took me six weeks to read because it was hard to read about the atrocities of wars covered by the author and her then husband, Robert Fisk. This should be included on history syllabus for this is the reality of modern warfare. Hats off to Lara Marlowe for her Frank account of their life together. Don’t be put off by the detailed accounts of wars in the Middle East mostly, though the Bosnian/Serbian conflict is also included. Read it at whatever pace is comfortable— for me I had to put it down often but I’m so glad I didn’t abandon it. Most definitely this is an anti-war tale. One we should all take to heart.
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Ciara
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September 14, 2022
3.5/5
The opening chapters don’t paint the author in the best light (Fisk’s second wife is never mentioned by name) and I wasn’t sure if I could stick with it initially.
I was glad I did however - Marlowe gives a very honest and personal look into herself and Fisk’s relationship and pulls no punches on either side.
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Matt Schiavenza
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July 30, 2022
From the late 1970s until his death in 2020, no journalist achieved as much fame or notoriety in covering the Middle East as Robert Fisk. Passionate, opinionated, indefatigable, and well-informed, Fisk wrote about every conflict from the Lebanese civil war to COVID-19 with a signature style. About a decade before his death, Fisk published The Great War for Civilization, a nearly 1,000-page memoir of his years in the region. One thing he didn't write about was the fact that for many of these years, Fisk had a wife: Lara Marlowe, a fellow foreign correspondent.
Now, Marlowe has written a memoir of her own. Unlike Fisk, who chose to omit her from his magnum opus, Marlowe has dedicated her volume to her deceased ex-husband. What results is an often fascinating account of a journalist's life that nonetheless remains far too circumspect about the putative subject of the book: their relationship.
Marlowe, an American, met the British Fisk in the early 1980s, when she was a young stringer in Lebanon and he an already-established star. Based in Beirut, a city then at the height of civil war, the two covered every conflict in the broader Middle East for the next two decades while maintaining a passionate, if tempestuous, relationship. The strongest sections of Marlowe's memoir don't involve Fisk at all, but consist of a gripping account of the Iran-Iraq War, U.S.-Iraq War, civil conflicts in Algeria and Yugoslavia, and numerous other conflicts. Marlowe wrote how her work for Time magazine was undermined by incompetent editors in New York, determined to squelch every last ounce of opinion from her dispatches.
For several chapters, Fisk appears here and there, an enigmatic figure who writes longingly of being with Marlowe yet refuses to commit to the marriage. Only later in the book do we learn much about their actual relationship, and the infidelity, on both sides, that tore it apart. Even after their split, in the early part of this century, Fisk and Marlowe remained friends for the rest of his life.
Love in the Time of War is caught uneasily between two books: a valuable reporter's memoir of covering the world's most volatile region, and an account of a failed marriage between two journalists. My sense is that Marlowe might have preferred to focus on the former, but was persuaded that Fisk's outsized fame made his inclusion better for marketing. The result is a book that may only be of interest to readers of a certain persuasion: those familiar with Fisk and the era of journalism he personified.
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Fionnuala
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June 27, 2024
Mostly enjoyable, though unfortunately slightly guilty of one of my pet peeves. I don't mind being taken on journeys adjacent to the main subject matter, but a) it has to be good and b) it has to be written well. The personal parts of this book, no matter what they concerned, were engaging and deeply, deeply touching. The context of the wars and politics not so much.
Listen. I don't mind those things. I have read a lot of memoirs by war journalists and now work as one myself (thanks entirely to all this reading, no less). I know that in any story about war, there's... well. Information about the war. Go figure. Plenty of journalists combine their memoirs with this context, but some are better at it than others. With this book, it sometimes felt like two seperate writers. I think Marlowe slipped a little too easily into a journalistic style, and let's just say it's clear that she spent a lot of her formative years writing for publications that preferred cold fact over informational prose.
Having said that, this book contains some of the most profound love I have ever seen replicated on the page. It's a level of adoration, nostalgia, and pain that I'm used to finding only in poetry, because prose so easily constricts and confuses such things. It's remarkable, and I enjoyed every moment of these parts. It makes it even more disappointing that chunks of the book progress as a fact-heavy memoir with no mention of the relationship between Marlowe and Fisk. Sometimes a quote from one of their many love letters is slapped on the end of a section, but it doesn't change the fact that this book feels like two seperate pieces of work running parallel. If I was being really cynical, I would say that Marlowe perhaps worried that her straightforward memoir would never sell without a hook, which is blatantly false as war journalists' memoirs have been selling ever since they first starting being written. The only reason I refrain from being so cynical is because the rest of this book is so genuine and sincere; if anything it proves that some of Marlowe's previous employers were wrong to not allow her more freedom with her copy. When she writes freestyle she is excellent: truthful, unflinching, and intelligent. Straightforward, mechanical facts restrain her.
I enjoyed this book well enough, but at the same time I am glad I found it for much cheaper than its full asking price. Even so, parts of this book will stick with me. I am always on the lookout for books that capture the sweet heartbreak of nostalgia, and this book is a brilliant example.
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David Smith
976 reviews32 followers
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May 13, 2025
I am fortunate to read so many wonderful books. Books that stimulate my mind and force me to question the world in which I live. Lara Marlowe's Love in a Time of War is one such book. I knew I would be captivated before reading the first page, simply because she spent most of her professional life with one of my favourite journalists, Robert Fisk. It wasn't easy to read about the deterioration of their marriage, few people like to witness such things. The professional relationship thankfully did not suffer - Marlowe and Fisk were on the same page. I am also on their page. In not quite the same detail as Fisk, in his marvelous books The Great War for Civilisation and Pity the Nation, Marlowe recounts the horror of war she witnessed time and time again, notably in the Middle East but in Algeria and Yugoslavia as well. As correspondent for the Irish Times (she would quit Time magazine following the censoring of her content about Israel), Marlowe, alongside Fisk, was on the frontline,that is, not embedded with the US and UK military as was the case with most Western journalists in Iraq, reported on the war crimes committed by the coalition forces. In Lebanon, where she was based for many years, Marlowe and Fisk were the world's witness to, amongst other things, Israeli murderous attacks on UN peacekeeping facilities housing refugees in South Lebanon. Both worked tirelessly for the release of hostages in the Middle East. As western English-language journalists go, Marlowe and Fisk had few equals. The were and remain inspirations. Lara - many thanks for your vital and important historical record.
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Sinead Warren
513 reviews55 followers
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July 20, 2025
Love in a Time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk by Lara Marlowe, read by the author, is one of my niche favourite genres of book: memoirs of journalists who I know and quite like. I don’t know why I am always drawn to this category of writing - perhaps my subconscious sees it as a peek behind the veil of what could have been had I not decided, halfway through my own journalism degree, that I absolutely did not want to be a journalist? Who knows.
This is a memoir of two halves that are intricately and inextricably intertwined. Marlowe, an esteemed war correspondent, details her storied career in parallel with that of her life with fellow correspondent Robert Fisk. It is an incredibly intimate and raw recollection of the relationship that shaped her life, revisited in the wake of Fisk’s death in 2020. Through the sharing of letters, poems, memories and articles, Marlowe recounts how Fisk courted her despite her being married, their life in Beirut and Paris and Dublin, their presence at some of the world’s worst atrocities, their individual infidelities, and the eventual breakdown of their marriage.
While I appreciated Marlowe’s willingness to cast herself in not-so-favourable light when required, I came away feeling surprised by how selfish, petulant and cruel both she and Fisk seemed to have been to each other throughout their long relationship. Zero judgement on how they wanted to live, love and hurt privately, but it was jarring to hear these behaviours recounted in the same breath as the massacres and famines, wars and rebellions that decimated much of the world at that time.
I feel that both stories, valuable in their own right, may have been better served by being told separately. Marlowe’s valuable reporting oftentimes ended up lost in drama of Fisk and their troubled marriage, and the juxtaposition of events like the Qana massacre or the fall of Saddam with their arguments about what windows to get for their Dalkey fixer-upper felt surprisingly tone deaf.
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Joe O'Donnell
293 reviews7 followers
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August 21, 2022
“Love in a Time of War” is a harrowing, frequently gut-wrenching, but intensely sensitive account of life as a war correspondent, and the difficulties of maintaining a marriage under such stressful conditions (especially when your partner is a fellow correspondent). Lara Marlowe and her husband, the late veteran foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, reported together from practically every conflict zone in the Middle East over the last four decades. “Love in a Time of War” takes in the horrors of the Algerian Civil War, the chaos of the internecine conflict in Lebanon, the disintegration of Yugoslavia into ethnic carnage, and America’s catastrophically misjudged adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Marlowe is unsparing about the brutality that characterises many Middle Eastern societies, but neither does she excuse The West’s complicity in allowing such countries descend into political turmoil and, crucially, she always shines a light on the horrific effect that war has on the ordinary citizens caught up in such chaos. The overwhelming feelings you are left with after reading “Love in a Time of War” are revulsion at man’s capacity to inflict unspeakable suffering on fellow man, how appalling are the conditions of so much of the world we live in, but also gratitude that we have journalists as courageous as Robert Fisk and Lara Marlow to chronicle it.
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From Australia
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely poignant read.
Reviewed in Australia on 18 April 2022
Format: Audiobook
As an admirer of Robert Fisk and his body of work I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into another side of him. An amazing read.
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From other countries
Bruce
5.0 out of 5 stars “War is death”
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I wasn’t sure about 5 stars, but I couldn’t really find a reason to withhold any. It’s easy to nitpick, but overall, this account of events in a parallel lifetime spoke to me.
In a nutshell, infidelity destroys trust, however deep the ‘love’ in a relationship, conflict is a fundamental part of life, and change is inevitable.
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damien1917
5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous
Reviewed in the United States on 17 January 2023
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
A fabulous record of the life of a journalist who made reading the newspaper worthwhile. As I finished the book I remembered that Fisk's words have been with me since the first American war against Iraq. His articles,books and frequent appearances on Australian news programmes have shaped my understanding of this frightful world that we inhabit. He's sorely missed. This is a fitting tribute!
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S. R.
1.0 out of 5 stars Stop reading at page 50
Reviewed in Brazil on 11 April 2022
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Robert Fisk deserved a better author.But if you want to know about the author's intimate life, feelings and writing style ...
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Jorge Henderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing history - interestingly written to keeps one’s interest.
Reviewed in the United States on 17 June 2023
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Detailed accounts and good balance of personal and geo political story. Thanks for making this available to those interested in recent Middle East history.
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JACK
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Buy the book second hand have to say when it camw it was like knew and as if it had never been read. Really gold read for anyone who wants to know anything about wars in the middle east
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Bash1987
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! A privilege to read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2025
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Started reading this after finishing the Robert Fisk’s Great War For Civilisation and could not put it down. Lara gives a very human and touching account of both of their lives whilst covering the some of the most important moments in modern Middle Eastern history. Great journalists who made a great team. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and a privilege to learn more about Robert Fisk and who he was a person. Thanks.
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JK
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2022
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Fascinating insight into the lives of both Lara Marlowe and Robert Risk. Truly great journalists. Could not put it down.
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Payne C J
5.0 out of 5 stars Horrors of War
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2021
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
This is an outstanding book on a number of fronts and levels. Makes gripping reading.
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