Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town - Hardcover

Theroux, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618134247 ISBN 13: 9780618134243

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2003

Synopsis

The master travel writer provides an insightful account of his odysses down the length of Africa, from Cairo to South Africa, aboard a dilapidated bus, ancient train, and rusty steamer, describing the bad food, many delays, discomforts, and dangers of his trip , along with the colorful people and places of the real Africa.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Dark Star Safari is a rich and insightful book whose itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Going by train, dugout canoe, ?chicken bus,? and cattle truck, Paul Theroux passes through some of the most beautiful ? and often life-threatening ? landscapes on earth.

This is travel as discovery and also, in part, a sentimental journey. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students, revisits his African friends. He finds astonishing, devastating changes wherever he goes. ?Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it,? he writes, ?hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can?t tell the politicians from the witch doctors.? Africa is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I got stranded, but I was never bored. In fact, my trip was a delight and a revelation.?

About the Author:

Paul Theroux’s highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0618134247
• ISBN 13: 9780618134243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 472