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    The Emperor

    Downfall of an Autocrat

    Part of Vintage International

    Author Ryszard Kapuscinski
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $16.00 US
    Knopf | Vintage
    5.15"W x 8"H x 0.5"D  
    On sale Mar 13, 1989 | 176 Pages | 9780679722038
    Grades AP/IB
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    Haile Selassie reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974.  Based on interviews with Selassie's servants and closest associates, this is Kapuscinski's fascinating account of Selassie, his Byzantine court, and his eventual downfall.  Perhaps one of the greatest anatomies of power and its delusions ever written, The Emperor ultimately transcends Selassie and Ethiopia to become an allegory of all totalitarian governments.   Translated by William R. Brand and Kataryna Mroczkowska-Brand.

    "Kapuscinski's writing, always wonderfully concrete and observant, conjures marvels of meaning out of minutiae.  And his book transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power...that reads as if Italo Calvino had rewritten Machiavelli.... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book."
    --Salman Rushdie
    Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland’s most celebrated foreign correspondent, was born in 1932 in Pinsk (in what is now Belarus) and spent four decades reporting on Asia, Latin America, and Africa. He is also the author of Imperium, Another Day of Life, and The Soccer War. His books have been translated into 28 languages. Kapuscinski died in 2007. View titles by Ryszard Kapuscinski
    "[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

    Haile Selassie reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974.  Based on interviews with Selassie's servants and closest associates, this is Kapuscinski's fascinating account of Selassie, his Byzantine court, and his eventual downfall.  Perhaps one of the greatest anatomies of power and its delusions ever written, The Emperor ultimately transcends Selassie and Ethiopia to become an allegory of all totalitarian governments.   Translated by William R. Brand and Kataryna Mroczkowska-Brand.

    "Kapuscinski's writing, always wonderfully concrete and observant, conjures marvels of meaning out of minutiae.  And his book transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power...that reads as if Italo Calvino had rewritten Machiavelli.... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book."
    --Salman Rushdie

    Author

    Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland’s most celebrated foreign correspondent, was born in 1932 in Pinsk (in what is now Belarus) and spent four decades reporting on Asia, Latin America, and Africa. He is also the author of Imperium, Another Day of Life, and The Soccer War. His books have been translated into 28 languages. Kapuscinski died in 2007. View titles by Ryszard Kapuscinski

    Praise

    "[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

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