Author Guide · Narrative Non-fiction
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For The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright did more than 600 interviews, some sources dozens of times. That is his method in one number: pick a closed world — al-Qaeda, the Church of Scientology, the Camp David talks, a family in Washington State undone by recovered memories — and keep asking until it opens. Born in Oklahoma City in 1947 and raised in Dallas, he joined The New Yorker in 1992, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, and since 2000 has also written four novels, two of them about Texas politics and Israel and Palestine. This guide covers his 14 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 14 key books · 1988–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Lawrence Wright has published 15 books: eleven works of non-fiction and four novels. The best known are The Looming Tower (2006), which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Going Clear (2013), about Scientology. His most recent is the novel The Human Scale (2025). Start with The Looming Tower; it is the book that shows his reporting method at full scale.
Where to Start with Lawrence Wright
If you want his defining book
→ The Looming Tower (2006) — the road to 9/11, built from more than 600 interviews.
If you want an inside look at a closed institution
→ Going Clear (2013) — Scientology, from L. Ron Hubbard to Hollywood.
If you want one case, told tightly
→ Remembering Satan (1994) — a family, a confession and recovered memory.
If you want his fiction
→ The End of October (2020) — the pandemic novel he finished in 2019.
14 Lawrence Wright Books, in Order
In the New World
A memoir of growing up in Dallas as a member of the baby-boom generation, set against the years from the assassination of John F. Kennedy in his home city to the re-election of Ronald Reagan. Wright uses his own life, his family and his schooling to tell the story of how the country changed around him.
Saints and Sinners
Six portraits of Americans on the edges of belief: the Dallas Methodist minister Walker Railey, the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, the atheist campaigner Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, the Baptist preacher Will Campbell and the priest Matthew Fox. It is the first book-length sign of his lasting interest in faith and the institutions built on it.
Remembering Satan
The case of Paul Ingram, a sheriff’s deputy in Olympia, Washington, whose daughters accused him in 1988 of sexual and satanic ritual abuse. Under repeated questioning Ingram came to “remember” crimes for which no physical evidence was found. Wright uses the case to examine recovered memory and how a confession can be produced; he later testified at Ingram’s pardon hearing.
Twins
A book about twin research and what it says about nature and nurture, including studies of identical twins raised apart. It grew out of his reporting for The New Yorker, during which he learned of a secret study, led by the psychiatrist Peter Neubauer with the adoption agency Louise Wise Services, that had placed twins in separate homes.
God’s Favorite
His first novel, a fictional account of the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in the months before the 1989 United States invasion of Panama. It began as a screenplay Wright wrote for Oliver Stone; the film was made instead for Showtime as Noriega: God’s Favorite (2000).
The Looming Tower
The history of al-Qaeda from the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb through Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, set against the FBI and CIA officials who tried and failed to stop the September 11 attacks. It is based on more than 600 interviews. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2007 and was a National Book Award finalist; Hulu adapted it as a series in 2018.
Going Clear
A history of the Church of Scientology, from its founder L. Ron Hubbard to his successor David Miscavige and its celebrity members, built from interviews with current and former members. It was a finalist for the National Book Award. Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary Going Clear (2015) won three Emmys, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Thirteen Days in September
A day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David summit, where Jimmy Carter kept Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat at the presidential retreat until they agreed the framework that led to the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. It appeared the same year as his play Camp David, which premiered at Arena Stage in Washington in March 2014.
The Terror Years
A collection of his New Yorker reporting on jihadist movements, from the pieces that led to The Looming Tower to the rise of the Islamic State, with an introduction that links them.
God Save Texas
A reported portrait of the state where he has spent most of his life, from its politics and oil money to its music and its place in the rest of the United States. It is partly personal: Wright writes from Austin, where he lives.
The End of October
Henry Parsons, an epidemiologist, is sent to investigate deaths from a new haemorrhagic flu in a camp in Indonesia; an infected man then leaves for the Hajj in Mecca, and the disease spreads worldwide. Wright began writing it in 2017 and delivered the final draft in the summer of 2019, so its publication in April 2020, during COVID-19, was widely noted as prescient.
The Plague Year
An account of the first year of COVID-19 in the United States, from the first warnings to the development of vaccines, told through scientists, officials and ordinary people. It expands his long New Yorker piece of the same name.
Mr. Texas
Sonny Lamb, a rancher in West Texas with no political experience, becomes briefly famous after fighting a fire on a neighbour’s farm and is talked into running for the Texas House of Representatives. The novel follows him through the campaign and the Capitol in Austin, among lobbyists and party bosses, while his marriage to Lola comes under strain.
The Human Scale
Tony Malik, an FBI agent with a Palestinian father, travels to Hebron in the West Bank for a cousin’s wedding and is drawn into the investigation of the murder of an Israeli police chief, working with a hard-line Israeli officer, Yossi Ben-Gal. The novel runs up to the attacks of 7 October 2023. The Human Scale is also the title of his one-man show staged off-Broadway in 2010.
In What Order to Read Lawrence Wright
None of Wright’s books continue from one another, so you can read by subject. His work does fall into clusters: religion and belief (Saints and Sinners, Remembering Satan, Going Clear), terrorism and the Middle East (The Looming Tower, The Terror Years, Thirteen Days in September, The Human Scale), Texas (In the New World, God Save Texas, Mr. Texas), and pandemics (The End of October, The Plague Year).
Within a cluster, publication order works well. The Terror Years reads best after The Looming Tower, and The End of October and The Plague Year make a pair: the novel he wrote before COVID-19, then the reporting on what actually happened.
A reading path
1. Remembering Satan (1994)
2. The Looming Tower (2006)
3. Going Clear (2013)
4. Thirteen Days in September (2014)
5. The End of October (2020)
Everything Else Lawrence Wright Published
Beyond the 14 key books: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Early non-fiction
1
1 book · 1979
- 1979City Children, Country Summerhis first book, on a programme that sent city children to stay with families in the countryside for the summer
The years · 1947–2025
Quick facts about Lawrence Wright
- Known for
- Long, patiently reported non-fiction about closed worlds, above all al-Qaeda in The Looming Tower and the Church of Scientology in Going Clear.
- 1947
- Born in Oklahoma City
- 1980
- Joins Texas Monthly
- 1992
- Staff writer at The New Yorker
- 2025
- The Human Scale
- Born
- 2 August 1947, Oklahoma City; grew up in Dallas
- Education
- Tulane University (BA); American University in Cairo (MA, 1969), where he taught for two years
- Worked
- Texas Monthly from 1980, Rolling Stone, then The New Yorker from 1992
- Honours
- Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2007), for The Looming Tower
- Stage and screen
- Co-writer of The Siege (1998); plays including My Trip to Al-Qaeda and Camp David
- Lives
- Austin, Texas, where he plays keyboards in the blues band WhoDo
The red mark is 2006: The Looming Tower, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
How Lawrence Wright Writes: Talk to Everybody
Wright’s books start from access. “The rule of journalism is: talk to everybody,” he told NPR in 2010, and he takes it literally: more than 600 interviews for The Looming Tower, many with the same sources again and again, and for Going Clear years of interviews with current and former Scientologists. His years in Cairo, where he took a master’s degree and taught at the American University, gave him a grounding in the Arab world before most American reporters had one.
He writes institutional history through people. The Looming Tower is told largely through four men, among them the FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill; Thirteen Days in September through three leaders shut in one compound. The prose is plain and the structure chronological, which lets very complex material read like a narrative. His reputation for fairness matters as much as his access: reviewing Going Clear, Michael Kinsley wrote in The New York Times that Wright bent over backward to be fair to Scientology, and that this made the case against it stronger.
Since 2000 he has also used fiction where reporting runs out: a dictator’s inner life, a pandemic that had not yet happened, Texas politics, a murder in Hebron. Much of his work also exists on stage and screen. For writers who report the same way, see Authors like Lawrence Wright.
Watch
Lawrence Wright on The Plague Year and American politics
Michael Fullilove of the Lowy Institute talks with Wright in June 2021 about The Plague Year, COVID-19 and American politics, and his career as a reporter.
Frequently asked questions about Lawrence Wright’s books
How many books has Lawrence Wright written?
Fifteen: eleven works of non-fiction and four novels, from City Children, Country Summer (1979) to The Human Scale (2025). Fourteen are the key books on this page; the first, City Children, Country Summer, is listed separately.
What are Lawrence Wright’s books in order?
City Children, Country Summer (1979), In the New World (1988), Saints and Sinners (1993), Remembering Satan (1994), Twins (1997), God’s Favorite (2000), The Looming Tower (2006), Going Clear (2013), Thirteen Days in September (2014), The Terror Years (2016), God Save Texas (2018), The End of October (2020), The Plague Year (2021), Mr. Texas (2023) and The Human Scale (2025).
Where should I start with Lawrence Wright?
With The Looming Tower (2006), his history of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11; it shows his method at its fullest. For something shorter, Remembering Satan (1994) follows a single case.
What is Lawrence Wright’s most famous book?
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, which won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted as a Hulu series in 2018. Going Clear, his 2013 book on Scientology, is his second best known, partly because of Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary.
Which Lawrence Wright book won the Pulitzer Prize?
The Looming Tower (2006) won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2007. It also won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the Lionel Gelber Prize, and was a National Book Award finalist.
Did Lawrence Wright write any novels?
Four: God’s Favorite (2000), about Manuel Noriega; The End of October (2020), a pandemic thriller; Mr. Texas (2023), about a rancher who runs for the Texas legislature; and The Human Scale (2025), a murder investigation in Hebron in the West Bank.
What is Lawrence Wright’s most recent book?
The Human Scale, a novel published by Knopf in March 2025. An FBI agent with a Palestinian father investigates the murder of an Israeli police chief in the West Bank in the period before 7 October 2023.
Did The End of October predict COVID-19?
Not in the sense of foreseeing it, but the timing was striking. Wright began the novel in 2017, from an idea he had in 2010 for a Ridley Scott film, and delivered the final draft in the summer of 2019. It was published in April 2020, a few weeks into the pandemic. His non-fiction account of the real thing followed as The Plague Year (2021).
How did the Church of Scientology respond to Going Clear?
Wright told The New York Times that he received “innumerable” letters threatening legal action from lawyers for the church and for celebrity members. Reviewers broadly found it fair: Michael Kinsley wrote in the Times that Wright bent over backward to be fair to Scientology.
Which Lawrence Wright books have been adapted?
The Looming Tower as a Hulu series (2018); Going Clear as an HBO documentary by Alex Gibney (2015), which won three Emmys; and God’s Favorite, which began as a screenplay and became the Showtime film Noriega: God’s Favorite (2000). Mr. Texas has been optioned as a limited series.
Is Lawrence Wright still alive?
Yes. He was born on 2 August 1947 in Oklahoma City, lives in Austin, Texas, and remains a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Footnotes
- Lawrence Wright — Wikipedia
- About — Lawrence Wright (official site)
- Journalist Lawrence Wright’s Trip to Al-Qaeda — NPR, 2010
- The Human Scale — Kirkus Reviews
- The End of October — Bookreporter
- In Conversation with Lawrence Wright — Lowy Institute, 2021
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The rule of journalism is: talk to everybody.”
— Lawrence Wright, interview with NPR (2010)
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