Why read The Zanzibar Chest?

Book cover of The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands

Book description

A deeply affecting memoir of a childhood in Africa and the continent's horrendous wars, which Hartley witnessed at first hand as a journalist in the 1990s. Shortlisted for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, this is a masterpiece of autobiographical journalism.

Aidan Hartley, a foreign correspondent, burned-out from…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Zanzibar Chest as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Anjan Sundaram

Author

I met Aidan in Bunia, on the frontline of the Congo war, where he kindly offered his help, and then, not knowing who he was, I discovered his memoir in the Nairobi airport.

His story of starting as a lowly stringer and working his way up resonated with my own journey as a stringer for The AP in DR Congo, a journey I recount in my first memoir, Stringer.

"Congo is a tough place," he told me in Bunia, "not many people move here to report." I enjoyed reading a book by a reporter who wanted to help young…

From Anjan's list on The best foreign correspondent memoirs of Africa.

Riccardo Orizio

Author

If you want a book that is amazingly written, informative, and full of all that makes Africa what it is – passion, tragedy, discovery – this is writing at its best. It’s one of those books that a writer can hardly duplicate or even imitate: a one-off miracle of a thousand different stories, characters, epochs, human trajectories, all ingredients of a complex dish that a normal chef would spoil but that Hartley pulls out of the oven still as a masterpiece. Interestingly, a book that has been praised and criticized with equally strong sentiments.

From Riccardo's list on The best books about post colonial life in Africa.