NONFICTION

Happily, Michael Hodges realized that the story of the remarkable AK47 isn't really the story of the gun itself -- it's the story of the people who have used it.

He finds some amazing narratives and weaves them together to make a compelling point: This gun, the classic automatic rifle that nearly every soldier, terrorist and rebel clutches in newsreel footage, has changed world events.

You've seen it because the AK has become iconic. Patty Hearst, aka Tania, held an AK when she walked into a San Francisco bank. Somalian warlords wave them overhead. In photos and videos, Osama bin Laden has one by his side. The gun that was developed for Russian soldiers to drag across the cold steppes was adopted by revolutionaries worldwide and then became an ever-present freedom-fighter prop. Now, its image stands more for terrorism.

The AK was created by Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Russian soldier, after World War II. Kalashnikov's weapon won a government-sponsored contest in which the two finalists were submerged in water for more than an hour, then dragged through sand barrel-first and fired. The other misfired but the AK didn't flinch. Gun buffs love the low-maintenance, minimal-parts design.

Hodges introduces us to American soldiers in Vietnam who threw down their M16s in favor of the enemy's AK, a French fashion photographer obsessed with Palestinian AKs, the long trail of Sudanese "lost boys," and two would-be jihadists in terrorist training camps -- each story illustrates a phase of the legendary gun's effect on world events.

Clearly the book will fascinate gun buffs. But because Hodges focuses on such compelling characters, the colorful story of how the AK has turned world events will appeal to a much wider audience.
Phaedra Hise writes nonfiction and serves on the board of James River Writers.