Crazy river
Subtitle: a plunge into Africa
By: Richard Grant
Publisher: Abacus
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780349000275
Subjects: Travel; Description and travel
Description: Grant has plunged with his trademark recklessness, wit, and curiosity into East Africa. Setting out to make the first descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania, he gets waylaid in Zanzibar by thieves, whores, and a charismatic former golf pro before crossing the Indian Ocean in a rickety cargo boat. And then the real adventure begins. Known to local tribes as "the river of bad spirits, " the Malagarasi River is a daunting adversary even with a heavily armed Tanzanian crew as travel companions. Dodging bullets, hippos, and crocodiles, Grant finally emerges in war-torn Burundi, where he befriends some ethnic street gangsters and trails a notorious man-eating crocodile known as Gustave. He concludes his journey by interviewing the dictatorial president of Rwanda and visiting the true source of the Nile. Gripping, illuminating, sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, Crazy River is a brilliantly rendered account of a modern-day exploration of Africa, and the unraveling of Grant&#x2019;s peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.
Notes: Originally published: London: Little, Brown, 2012.
Table of contents: title: 1. Stone Town; title: 2. Ramadan saloon; title: 3. Lay down your heart; title: 4. The road west; title: 5. Waking into nightmare; title: 6. Chapter of accidents; title: 7. Pool's errand; title: 8. Burundi calling; title: 9. Maneater; title: 10. Monstrous shadow; title: 11. Please rise for His Excellency; title: Epilogue.