Three Cups of Deceit

by Jon Krakauer

My reasons for reading Three Cups of Deceit were complicated. First, it was free as a PDF download for the first 72 hours of its release. Second, its release represents a new attempt to market long-form journalism. This "book" (which is almost short enough to be a long article) is the first in a series of nonfiction released by a new publisher called Byliner, which hopes to release non-fiction and journalistic pieces a la carte, similar to Amazon's Kindle Singles. But the third reason started reading Three Cups of Deceit is the reason I finished it: because the allegations it directs at international best-seller and humanitarian, Greg Mortenson, were too severe to ignore, and because for all his ills, Jon Krakauer tells a gripping story.

If you don't know who Greg Mortenson is, you have likely heard of what he does. He founded the Central Asian Institute, which builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson wrote the the popular book Three Cups of Tea, which stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for three years. He is a frequent speaker at universities and events, and his story is remarkable. According to Mortenson, his mission to build schools came about accidentally, when he took a wrong turn and stumbled into a small Pakistani village on his way back from a failed attempt at climbing K2, the world's second-tallest peak. The village people took him in, nursed him back to health, and in return, he rashly promised to build a school there so the village children could get an education. He did that, and his book details how he kept going, building hundreds of schools in a war-torn region and braving Taliban kidnappings, treacherous journeys, and overcoming bureaucratic obstacles to give kids an education. 

It's an inspiring story, but as the book documents in great detail, a lot of it isn't true. Krakauer was one of Mortenson's early supports and financial backers, but he became disillusioned by Mortenson's lax financial practices and refusal to answer to anyone. As Krakauer tells it, Mortenson used the charity for his personal gain, to market his books and pay for plush accommodations, private jets, and a high annual salary. Krakauer's skill at drawing together facts and people, which served him so well it books like Into Thin Air, is in full effect here. Three Cups of Deceit is definitely worth a read, in part because it may represent the future of journalism, but mostly because it's a solid piece of investigative reporting.