Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

The other day, I did a book event at Politics & Prose, a fabulous book store in DC. You can listen to it on NPR, and if you speed through the not-so-thrilling part where I am yapping (to about minute 16), you start to hear the questions. People’s comments were smart, thoughtful and sometimes a little weird--in a good way.

I couldn’t believe how fun it was, to tell you the truth. There was even a seismologist there, along with one of the foremost experts on building safety…

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The Unthinkable will hit stores in Brazil in June 2008, just after the US release. The publisher is Globo.

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I have a great job. I parachute into people’s lives and ask them questions. I cover risk and homeland security for Time Magazine, but I get to define the beat broadly—so broadly that I often write things that have nothing to do with anything at all.

This week, for example, I’m writing a story for dead-tree Time about the intimate details of the life of Barack Obama’s mother. I asked the man questions that are just none of my business, and he answered them. I met his sister under a palm…

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If you’d rather hear the book than read it, the CD is available starting June 10. 

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The Unthinkable will be published in Sweden by Forum in the spring of 2009.

One of the survivors profiled in the book is Kent Härstedt, a member of Sweden’s parliament who survived the worst sea disaster in modern European history. The MV Estonia ferry sunk in the Baltic Sea on the night of September 28, 1994. Härstedt patiently shared with me the detailed story of his own unlikely survival. He also talked about what he saw other people do on the ship that night, from a man who smoked a cigarette on the deck as the…

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My new book, The Unthinkable, goes on sale on June 10—nine days after the start of hurricane season, appropriately enough. But if you just can’t wait (or you are my mom), you can pre-order now.

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The Unthinkable will be published in Japan by Kobunsha at the end of 2008.

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