Crazy River

From the acclaimed author of Dispatches From Pluto and Deepest South of All comes a rollicking travelogue from East Africa.

NO ONE TRAVELS QUITE LIKE RICHARD GRANT and, really, no one should. In his last book, the adventure classic God's Middle Finger, he narrowly escaped death in Mexico's lawless Sierra Madre. Now, 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's peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 10/25/2011
ISBN: 9781439154144
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.74h x 5.36w x 0.82d

Review Citations: Library Journal 09/15/2011 pg. 93
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2011
Booklist 10/01/2011 pg. 18
Shelf Awareness 11/11/2011