| In the Land of Magic Soldiers: A Story of White and Black in West Africa Contributor(s): Bergner, Daniel (Author) |
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ISBN: 031242292X ISBN-13: 9780312422929 Publisher: Picador USA OUR PRICE: $18.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2004 Annotation: An "Los Angeles Times" Best Book 2003 In Sierra Leone, rampaging soldiers have made a custom of hacking off the hands of their victims, then letting them live as the ultimate emblem of terror. The country is so desperate that, forty years after independence, its people long to be recolonized. In this book, the acclaimed author of novelist and journalist" "follows a set of Western would-be saviors and a set of Sierra Leoneans, who take us into a land of beauty, horror, resilience and redemption. From mercenaries to missionaries, child soldiers to parent fugitives, Bergner tells this racially charged story with sensitivity and precision, creating an unforgettable work of literary reportage. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Africa - General - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General - History | Africa - West |
| Dewey: 966.404 |
| LCCN: 2003044065 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (0.70 lbs) 224 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: An Los Angeles Times Best Book 2003 A chilling, beautifully written narrative of African war Sierra Leone is the world's most war-ravaged country. There, in a West African landscape of spectacular beauty, rampaging soldiers--many not yet in their teens--have made a custom of hacking off the hands of their victims, then letting them live as the ultimate emblem of terror. The country is so anarchic and so desperate that, forty years after independence, its people long to be recolonized. And the West wants to save it. Daniel Bergner's In the Land of Magic Soldiers follows both a set of white would-be saviors--a family of American missionaries, a mercenary helicopter gunship pilot, and the army of Great Britain--and also a set of Sierra Leoneans, among them a father who rescues his daughter from rape, loses his hands as punishment, then begins to rebuild his life; a child soldier and sometime cannibal; and a highly Westernized medical student who claims immunity to bullets and a cure for H.I.V. A story of black and white, of the First World and the world left infinitely behind, of those who would nation-build and those who live in a land of fire and jungle, In the Land of Magic Soldiers is an unforgettable work of literary reportage by a terrific reporter with a novelist's eye (Peter Applebome, The New York Times Book Review). |
Contributor Bio(s): Bergner, Daniel: - The author of Moments of Favor and God of the Rodeo: The Quest for Redemption in Louisiana's Angola Prison, Daniel Bergner has written for Harper's, Talk, and The New York Times Magazine. He lives with his family in New York City. |