'A wonderful and sometimes devastating book ... sophisticated, nuanced, fair-minded and yet very hard hitting' SIMON KUPER 'This will transport you to Qatar and teach you with humanity and empathy some of the dark truths about globalisation' BEN JUDAH 'John McManus is a remarkable, compelling writer' RORY STEWART 'Wise, well informed, fair-minded and honest' PETER OBORNE AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD'S RICHEST NATIONS AHEAD OF THE FIFA 2022 WORLD CUP Just 75 years ago, the Gulf nation of Qatar was a backwater, reliant on pearl diving. Today it is a gas-laden parvenu with seemingly limitless wealth and ambition. Skyscrapers, museums and futuristic football stadiums rise out of the desert and Ferraris race through the streets. But in the shadows, migrant workers toil in the heat for risible amounts. Inside Qatar reveals how real people live in this surreal place, a land of both great opportunity and great iniquity. Ahead of Qatar's time in the limelight as host of the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup, anthropologist John McManus lifts a lid on the hidden worlds of its gilded elite, its spin doctors and thrill seekers, its manual labourers and domestic workers. The sum of their tales is not some exotic cabinet of curiosities. Instead, Inside Qatar opens a window onto the global problems - of unfettered capitalism, growing inequality and climate change - that concern us all. A stunning expos? ... A social anthropologist by trade, McManus's focus is not on the secretive intrigues of Qatar's ruling family, but on the lives of ordinary people - in particular the estimated 2.3 million guest workers who outnumber the locals by nearly ten to one ... McManus is an engaging writer, who can bring even anonymous interviewees to life. This is a wonderful and sometimes devastating book. John McManus takes us through Qatar from top to bottom, treating everyone he meets with equal respect no matter where they stand on the country's ethnic hierarchy that he describes so well. The book is sophisticated, nuanced, fair-minded and yet very hard-hitting, and the writing is mercifully clear. The harsh spotlight of a World Cup can reduce complex issues to black and white and cast nuance and shades of grey to the margins of the discourse. This is a tremendously detailed and considerate look at Qatar in all its complexities. It does not pull its punches, but it benefits enormously from a gaze that seeks to understand rather than to condemn or castigate, and it is this approach that makes the criticism all the more powerful when it is delivered. Based on extensive time in the country and discussions with Qataris and non-Qataris alike, it should be required reading for anyone heading to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.