Proof of Life: Twenty Days on the Hunt for a Missing Person in the Middle East

by Daniel Levin

“Riveting . . . Well-written and highly compelling. "— Wall Street Journal

​“Truly thrilling. Daniel Levin brilliantly conveys both the menace and the evil of Middle Eastern intrigue, and some victories of human kindness over cruelty and despair.”—Daniel Kahneman,  New York Times bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow 

Daniel Levin was in his New York office when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man had gone missing in Syria. No government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. Could he? Would he? So begins a suspenseful, shocking, and at times brutal true story of one man’s search to find a miss­ing person in Syria over twenty tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed-conflict negotia­tor, chases leads throughout the Middle East, meeting with powerful sheikhs, drug lords, and sex traffickers in his pursuit of the truth.

In Proof of Life , Levin dives deep into the shadows—an underground industry of war where everything is for sale, including arms, drugs, and even people. He offers a fasci­nating study of how people use leverage to get what they want from one another and of a place where no one does a favor without wanting something in return, whether it’s immediately or years down the road.

A fast-paced thriller wrapped in a memoir, Proof of Life is a cinematic must-read by an author with access to a world that usually remains hidden.





 

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Middle East, War, Crime, Politics, Book Club

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book, Daniel Levin, is a lawyer, turned armed-conflict negotiator. He is in Paris when a friend asks him for dinner to discuss a, 'life or death,' matter. An old friend has a son missing in Syria, could Daniel help?

Despite his reservations, Daniel agrees to try to find Proof of Life of the young man who was last seen heading for Aleppo. What follows is a search for answers, which will lead to nightmarish trips to Beirut and Dubai, meeting dangerous men dealing in the drugs and people trade in the Gulf.

What comes across, after reading this very moving account, is the way humans are treated with such a lack of compassion by men who feel pride at wearing diamond studded shirts, brought through the abject misery of young girls, ripped from their families and misused. Although Daniel does, of course, find good people who will help him, the level of hypocrisy, cruelty and sheer evil he uncovers, is staggering. Not, perhaps, a comfortable book, but one well worth reading.

[Jessica Buzzard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and horrifying all at once.

The narration is also fantastic.

[Rae Choins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book marked me in ways I can’t even begin to describe. Thank you, Daniel Levin, for sharing this story with us.

[Michael Richter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down one of the best books I've ever read! I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll just say that the search for the person missing in Syria takes many amazing twists and turns, some laugh-out-loud funny moments and some shocking, painful moments. The epilogue stunned me. And I will never talk about war the same way again after reading the book's postscript. A masterpiece.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a book. Got me completely engaged from start to finish

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Similar to Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice a good story is marred by the author's writing style. Both books really needed a different author.

Brower's writing was over the top and unintentionally funny whereas Levin's is overly styled and stretched the bounds of credulity. It seems Levin only encounters people at the extremes: geniuses, saints, devils and utter imbeciles. Conversations are straight out of an episode of Batman ("Hey, nice shirt!" "Thank you. Please join me for expensive drinks while I tell you about all of my diabolical deeds. All you have to do is say, "wow" every now and then and I'll keep on incriminating myself with gratuitous detail.").

I criticized Brower for his use of stuttering dialogue when someone spoke to him fearfully and around the midway point Levin went there too:

Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2163
“No w-way! I d-don’t b-believe you,” Mike stuttered in a weirdly high pitch. All his bravado seemed to have vanished. He had the look of someone who had just been abandoned by his date at the high school prom."

Ouch.

In the Irony is Dead Department Levin ignores the extreme flattery he regularly heaps on his friends and lodges this complaint:

Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2320
"It was a classic Gulf maneuver, where everyone is described in hyperbolic terms and everything is embellished beyond recognition. A man cannot just be financially secure or even wealthy, he has to be the billionaire of billionaires; he cannot just be intelligent, he has be a generational genius who predicted every financial or political event years before it took place; a woman cannot be merely attractive, she has to be the most gorgeous, desirable Victoria’s Secret model in the world who turned down marriage proposals by multiple sheikhs. An employee morphs into a supervisor, a supervisor into a boss, and a boss into a chairman. The region has without a doubt the highest VIP per capita density. These frenetic exaggerations extend to all things: a car cannot just be fast, it has to be the fastest in the world; a shack turns into a house, a house becomes a villa, and a villa becomes a palace. It was a constant inflation of words to the point where they lost all value and meaning."

Hello?

There's even some James Bond-like action later in the book where Levin incapacitates an evil man with a quick strike and there's apparently no follow up police activity or fallout. It's all so fantastic in so many wrong ways.

I highlighted lots of passages to bring attention to the books many flaws.

[Amy Hagberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniel Levin, a board member of the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance, was at his office one day when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man who had set out for Aleppo, Syria to assist a group of volunteer doctors had gone missing and no government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. So begins the story of one man’s search to find a missing person in Syria over eighteen tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed conflict negotiator, uses his extensive Middle Eastern contacts to chase one lead to the next in an underground world of drug and human trafficking. The book includes details about other cases of kidnapped Westerners in the Middle East and portrayals of power brokers, smugglers, and funders of terrorism.

Proof of Life was fascinating. I read online reviews, some of which claimed Levin’s book was fictional rather than autobiographical, but I disagree. His account was very believable, as were the video interviews he did. He was very knowledgeable, articulate, and intelligent. His bravery was impressive, not only because of his dealings with unsavory characters in Middle Eastern war zones, but also because he is Jewish, a people group loathed by many Arabs.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t like the author's writing style. The lengthy footnotes were distracting and sent me down many bunny trails. Because of that, Proof of Life read like a textbook. It also needed developmental editing, as too many phrases were repeated, and it was too heavy on simile and metaphor. Although I wasn’t a fan of the writing, I learned a great deal about recent Middle Eastern history and the current situation in several countries. The author worked hard to share his impressive knowledge of the area. Be sure to read this book when you are alert and prepared to do some research as you move through it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of the book.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - Loved it ! Fascinating tale of the author's quest to find a missing person in Syria.
I learned a lot about Middle Eastern history, culture, customs and crime. This true story
reads like a spy/mystery novel. Not only was this a story about a 'proof of life' mission,
but also, a second story was revealed at the end. Outstanding book.
Don't miss this one !

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most gut-wrenching books I have ever read.

A book about the evils of war, human trafficking, and drugs in the Middle East. All businesses that are alive and well today. A haunting chronology that will stay with you.

(Maybe don't read this in public unless you're cool with bursting into tears on the bus. But you know, you-do-you.)

[Donna Wetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Goodreads for my copy of Proof of Life: The Undercover Search for a Missing Person in Syria, where Arms, Drugs and People are for Sale. I don't think anyone that has read this book by Daniel Levin would give it any less than 5 stars. Proof of Life is a life changing book that left me thinking about what I could do to make the world a better place. Levin shows us a side of the world that I am happy to not be a part of. This book is fast paced and interesting throughout as we feel, as readers, that we are in this with Daniel trying to find out the truth about what happened to Paul. The US should do more to help end human trafficking and this book highlights why.

[Milena Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book - I could not put it down and read it in one sitting! The plot is utterly thrilling - actually, thrillers within thrillers - and the attention to detail (in both dialogues and settings) is fantastic. Levin's account is so immediate, so real, that I felt as if I was right next to him during those twenty days. The rendering of the sexual violence is devastating, as is the callousness exhibited by many perpetrators and indifferent bystanders. Levin shows deep empathy for the victims, but without infantilizing them, and he resists depicting himself as any kind of hero. I intend to make this book required reading for my Middle East classes.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This real life account of one man’s efforts to locate a man in Syria completely drew me in. Daniel Levin is well versed in building relationships and engaging in complex negotiations and third tier diplomacy within the Middle East. This request from a friend sparked Daniel’s pursuit across multiple countries, chasing leads and interacting with colorful and sometime unscrupulous characters.

[Rich Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Levin will leave a permanent mark on your soul when you read about the senseless kidnapping, danger, sex slavery and endless war in Syria. A true journalistic achievement that should be recognized at the highest level.

[Neil Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thriller and very informative about the the profiteering that has surrounded the Syrian Civil War since the beginning. Levin is a great writer and keeps you wanting more.

[Rafik Shoorbajee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words cannot describe the emotions I felt reading this.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel was doing a friend a favor, by trying to find a son of the man's friend. He was known to be in the Middle East.

The search was a period of twenty days in 2014. Daniel met with Khalid and so careful not to offend
the ruler, but listen and take counsel. The purpose was to find the person (Anas) was would know what happened to the missing American Paul.

Daniel met with Anas's ex-wife to learn about him. She intern wanted Daniel to get her and her daughter out of the Middle East and into a European country.

By accident Daniel stopped an assualt on a very young teen girl. Later her sister caught up with Daniel to thank him. That young girl led Daniel to Anas to help find out what happened to Paul.

Daniel promised the girls he would get hem out of the Middle East, where they were sex slaves and into a European country where they could finish school.

I want to thank Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill for the wonderful book I received.

[Katee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 rounded down to 3

Given this book as part of a library reward giveaway.

Daniel Levin is a lawyer whose experience and personal connections has him called upon to find a missing person in Syria. A harrowing 20 days in Syria leads to resilience, advocacy, and a desire for change.

I was captivated by the writing style. I just struggled with some of the typographical errors and the desire for more details and story. I did enjoy how the one antagonist was depicted, as it was accurate and emotional. Wanted to know more about two of the characters near the end. I also wanted to know how Levin happened to escape worse emotional or physical danger, since it seemed as if he was extremely lucky to escape some situations.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just fantastic. The path taken to get to the end of this story was interesting, of course, but what I found most interesting in reading this was the frank assessments of the Syrian War, and its major players by people on the ground, or those taking advantage of the war for their own profit. Regardless, the story itself is extremely interesting, and once I started, I really couldn't put it down.

[Bob Lingle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. Read it if you like adventure. Read it if you like mystery. Read it if you're interested in international relations. The conflict in Syria. Human Rights issues. Black lives matter. Just pick it up, and read it.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to read. So many depraved people in this world. Warning: Nothing hopeful or cheerful in these pages.

[the.reading.snail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shook me to my core.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, thrilling, suspenseful, and sad. Anyone interested in the Middle East, political landscapes, and the fraught circumstances of those caught in the middle will appreciate this masterful nonfiction look at a 20-day search for a missing man in war-torn Syria. Daniel Levin’s command of the subject matter is outstanding.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing and engaging reflection on the quest to find a missing person in war torn Syria. We follow the author throughout the Middle East and witness meetings with drug dealers, sex traffickers', gangsters and even Sheiks. This was a deeply disturbing and fascinating novel, I highly recommend that you read it.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work with stunning story. This recounting of a search for a man kidnapped in Syria will remain with you for a long time. Daniel Levin's true story of his quest will leave you wondering about mankind itself. He traces his painstaking steps to reach a resolution. Each step is characterized by almost unimaginable obstacles opposed only by his own relentlessness. We meet people we'd share a meal with if we met anywhere else on earth, and those we'd avoid like a plague. You'll find truth written about the Syrian civil war. It is a land exploited by nations, criminal interests, tribal groupings and horrific people. There are also kind, otherwise good people caught up in a terrible Hell from which there seems no escape. Read this, and learn.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can I not give this 5 stars? The topic is incredibly important and yet the story seems completely improbable. Daniel Levin has some serious stones to take the kind of risk he did in his search for a young man who disappeared in Syria. But this is more than a story about a missing twenty-something. Proof of Life is a literary-nonfic education about the way things really work in the Middle East. A lot of it ugly and astonishingly despicable but at the same time the beauty of people who are willing to help even if for a chip to turn in down the road for their benefit.

[Elithrion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claims it's non-fiction, but it very strongly reads like it's at least mildly fictionalized. There are too many coincidences, some of which just seem to be there to liven up the plot, while others advance it. Also, our protagonist/author can smell fine-grained emotions! (If we're being generous, I suppose this might be psychosomatic.)

Nonetheless, despite that iffiness, the account is interesting and the core elements are believable.

[Erin Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. It contained a lot of interesting information about Syria and the war, and the actual events that took place are pretty remarkable. The dialogue is really stilted, though, which makes it feel awkward a lot if the time.

[Susan Neuwirth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Levin’s “Proof of Life,” a riveting true story, begins with a plea for help before barreling down a winding tunnel of facts and rumors. An acquaintance has asked Mr. Levin to assist in locating a friend’s son, who has gone missing. The man, in his mid-20s, entered Syria as a volunteer with a medical organization, and hasn’t been heard from in two months. The news of his disappearance has not been made public and the true nature of his activities in Syria isn’t entirely clear.

Mr. Levin agrees to help, and over the course of 20 days travels through the Middle East in search of the missing man. In Amman, he meets a duo who might be connected to the possible kidnapper but want a million dollars to provide an introduction. In Beirut, he has an unlikely encounter with a sheikh (whom he does not name, but whose identity may be obvious to casual observers of Middle Eastern politics). And in Dubai, the author tracks down the ex-wife of the suspected kidnapper; her desire for revenge against her former husband motivates her to help Mr. Levin. It is a race against time, as the author scrambles to ascertain whether the young man is still alive and, if so, how he might be gotten out.

Throughout the book Mr. Levin, a New Yorker raised in the Middle East and in Africa, hints at his previous work with the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance. It’s difficult to tell how much his past experience in negotiating for the end of the Syrian war—which, like many other similar initiatives, has obviously failed—tempered the author’s

[Subu Balan · Rating 5 out of 5]

First favorite of 2022. This book is brilliant in its description of so many human sides, the most fascinating to me being the following:
- It is an anthology of power in the middle-east (not just Syria, but from Istanbul to Dubai): Everything is "business" (transactional), and leverage is a greater currency than the US dollar.
- It describes in detail, and from the perspective of those on the ground in Syria, on how war, religion, child trafficking, arms trade, politics and arms trade are tightly intertwined; why wars are good for "business" for the evil; and why UN and other "peace keeping" forces can do absolutely nothing in these regions.
- Evil exists in forms way wilder than our wildest imaginations. The whole mechanism of child trafficking from supply and demand to the absolute indifference of the "end-users" to treat one child completely different from their own..... gave me nightmares.

Still several questions remain:
1. How could Lubna sustain her extravagant lifestyle, stay safe with her daughter and have leverage after being separated from Anas?
2. How could Daniel trust Reem in the initial days when she could easily be an informer?
3. Would Emad and Mike not have disclosed their important meetings with Daniel to Anas? For as smart as Emad was and for as smart as Anas thought he was to have survived the worst through being informed.
4. Why would Anas trust Daniel and have hours long friendly banter eventually disclosing Paul Blocher's whereabouts? Again, for as smart as Anas was (per the build-up), would he not have suspected Daniel?

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof of Life is a very gripping, affecting read that moves at a breakneck pace after the first couple chapters and never lets you go, even when you're afraid of what the author will uncover next. With its constant references to secretive contacts, old friends, and prior operations, it read like a spy novel. Just darker, more heartrending, and, of course, true.

The only things that took me a bit out of the narrative were the author's constant and often unnecessary depictions of what he was thinking and feeling; the writing was also a bit clunky at times. I did really appreciate the footnotes that gave context and lent credence to the author's recollections in their exacting detail. The book overall gave me a searing insight into the conflicts and cultures in the modern Middle East. I would recommend this book to fans of political intrigue, grim narrative nonfiction, and anyone who wants to learn more about the Syrian conflict and/or the brutal reality of human trafficking.

Note that this book contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence (and violence in general).