The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (Vintage International) - Softcover

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679722033 ISBN 13: 9780679722038

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 1989

Synopsis

Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Elect of God, Lion of Judah, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, reigned from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974. While the fighting still raged, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland's leading foreign correspondent, traveled to Ethiopia to seek out and interview Selassie's servants and closest associates on how the Emperor had ruled and why he fell. This "sensitive, powerful. . .history" (The New York Review of Books) is Kapuscinski's rendition of their accounts--humorous, frightening, sad, groteque--of a man living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered netween hunger and starvation.

About this title

Product Description:

The Emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Elect of God, Lion of Judah, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, reigned from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974. While the fighting still raged, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland's leading foreign correspondent, traveled to Ethiopia to seek out and interview Selassie's servants and closest associates on how the Emper... Full description

Review:

"[The Emperor] transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book."
--Salman Rushdie

"Kapuscinski transcends the limitations of journalism and writes with the narrative power of a Conrad or Kipling or Orwell."
--Blake Morrison

"A Stunning exhibit; the interviewed subjects. . .enunciate their memories of the days of Haile Selassie with a magical elegance that. . .achieves poetry and aphorism."
--John Updike, The New Yorker

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0679722033
• ISBN 13: 9780679722038
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176