04/24/2017
A journalist juggles a relationship and overseas adventure in this hectic memoir. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times correspondent Gettleman recounts his dangerous reporting from global hot spots: interviewing Taliban POWs in Afghanistan; surveying firefights and suicide-bomb carnage in Iraq; and exploring famines, insurgencies, tribal massacres, and a pirate café in East Africa, where he is the Times bureau chief. Sharing many of his exploits is his wife and sometime colleague Courtenay; their star-crossed relationship, including bouts of infidelity, complicates his wanderlust. Gettleman’s narrative has the virtues and limitations of journalism; it’s colorful, evocative and immediate, but also distracted and somewhat shapeless. Many episodes are riveting: Gettleman was abducted by Iraqi insurgents (he escaped by pretending to be Greek instead of American), and he and Courtenay accompanied Ogaden rebels on a gruelling desert trek only to be thrown in prison by Ethiopian soldiers. Unfortunately, the storm-tossed-romance theme feels inflated; it bogs down in bickering between Gettleman and Courtenay, and sometimes entices the author into purplish prose (one illicit tryst in Baghdad “ a wet spot on the sheets as blood settled into pools out on the streets”). Africa definitely feels like the more compelling of Gettleman’s passions, rendered here in engrossing reportage. (May)
From Jeffrey Gettleman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, comes a passionate, revealing story about finding love and finding a calling, set against one of the most turbulent regions in the world.
A seasoned war correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman has covered every major conflict over the past twenty years, from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Congo. For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling his teenage dream of living in Africa. Love, Africa is the story of how he got there-and of his difficult, winding path toward becoming a good reporter and a better man.
At nineteen, Gettleman fell in love, twice. On a community service trip in college, he went to Africa-a terrifying, exciting, dreamlike continent in the throes of change that imprinted itself on his imagination and heart. One day, he vowed, he would return there to stay. But around the same time he also fell in love with Courtenay, a fellow Cornell student-the brightest, fiercest, kindest woman he'd ever met.
Courtenay became a lawyer in America, and all Gettleman wanted was to be with her. But he also hungered to be in Africa. For the next decade he would waver between these two abiding passions. Finally, after a great deal of growing up, he learned to be honest with himself about what he wanted-a realization that ultimately fulfilled both of his deepest desires.
A beautifully rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days, Love, Africa is a tale of passion, professional rivalries, tortuous long-distance relationships, marital strife, forgiveness, parenthood, and happiness that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.
Love, Africa is a beautifully rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.
It is a must-read for anyone who loves travel memoirs, African history, or inspirational stories of forgiveness and happiness.
HarperCollins 2024
From Jeffrey Gettleman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, comes a passionate, revealing story about finding love and finding a calling, set against one of the most turbulent regions in the world.
A seasoned war correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman has covered every major conflict over the past twenty years, from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Congo. For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling his teenage dream of living in Africa. Love, Africa is the story of how he got there-and of his difficult, winding path toward becoming a good reporter and a better man.
At nineteen, Gettleman fell in love, twice. On a community service trip in college, he went to Africa-a terrifying, exciting, dreamlike continent in the throes of change that imprinted itself on his imagination and heart. One day, he vowed, he would return there to stay. But around the same time he also fell in love with Courtenay, a fellow Cornell student-the brightest, fiercest, kindest woman he'd ever met.
Courtenay became a lawyer in America, and all Gettleman wanted was to be with her. But he also hungered to be in Africa. For the next decade he would waver between these two abiding passions. Finally, after a great deal of growing up, he learned to be honest with himself about what he wanted-a realization that ultimately fulfilled both of his deepest desires.
A beautifully rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days, Love, Africa is a tale of passion, professional rivalries, tortuous long-distance relationships, marital strife, forgiveness, parenthood, and happiness that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.
Love, Africa is a beautifully rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.
It is a must-read for anyone who loves travel memoirs, African history, or inspirational stories of forgiveness and happiness.
HarperCollins 2024
Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival
Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170181834 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 05/16/2017 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |