The Shadow of the Sun - My African Life

The Shadow of the Sun - My African Life

by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Penguin, HK$132

Building the Great Wall of China required 'dedication and devotion' and 'exemplary discipline', Ryszard Kapuscinski writes in the recently published Travels with Herodotus. 'This is how the world's energy is wasted.' Kapuscinski, the grand master of reportage, died in January aged 71. Publishers are reissuing the often allegorical books by which English readers came to know this Polish foreign correspondent, witness to 27 coups and revolutions - in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa - and four times sentenced to death. Salman Rushdie said: 'I think that nobody who puts himself in danger as much as he does is entirely sane.' The Shadow of the Sun is a collection of 23 sketches of Africa that reveals Kapuscinski's gifts as a descriptive writer and prose poet. These stories, spanning 40 years, focus on what one critic calls 'the beautiful terror of the human condition'. He is often accused of generalising when he tries to distil meaning from his experiences, but admits Africa 'is too large to describe. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'.' Perspective is all.