It’s often easier to write an introduction to a book that’s been around a while; the introduction becomes, in a sense, more of a thoughtful retrospective on the book, written
with the advantages of hindsight and history.
The Lion’s Game was written in 1999 and published in January 2000. I make this point because of the events of September 11, 2001. Many readers
of this book believe that there are references in The Lion’s Game that predict that horrific day, and many people have called The Lion’s Game prescient and even prophetic. And while this is flattering to any writer, I don’t claim to be a bestselling Nostra-damus.
Bestselling, yes, Nostradamus, no.
How then did I apparently predict some of the events of September 11, 2001, without a crystal ball? The answer is simple:
The handwriting was on the wall for all to see. The facts of the first attack on the North Tower of the World Trade Center,
which occurred on February 26, 1993, were obviously well known when I wrote The Lion’s Game, and are even mentioned in the book. That attack by Islamic extremists, using a truck bomb parked in the underground parking
garage of the North Tower, should have been a wake-up call to America. But we, the American public and the media, did not
see this attack as a warning of what was to come.
