Ryszard Kapuscinski

Depicting the final years of the Shah in Iran, this book offers a meditation on the nature of revolution and the devastating results of fear. It describes the tyrannical monarch, who, despite his cruel oppression of the Iranian people, sees himself as the father of a nation, who can turn a backward country into a great power. Meer

Records how the author set out on his first forays to India, China and Africa with the great Greek historian constantly in his pocket. The author sees Louis Armstrong in Khartoum, visits Dar-es-Salaam, arrives in Algiers in time for a coup when nothing seems to happen (but he sees the Mediterranean for the first time). Meer

In 1975 Kapuscinski flew into Luanda in Angola, to cover the murderous civil war that had broken out after independence. This book is a record of his experiences there, of a city and a country that seemed, for a prolonged period, to have taken leave of the world, to enter a nightmare of anarchy. Meer

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