Cocaine Train by Stephen Smith
One of the most violent countries on earth, where the cause of death is regularly 'massacre', drink drivers play chicken and kidnap stories pass for dinner party conversation; nine times more dangerous than the United States, Columbia is no place for the nervous traveller. So it is much against his better judgement that, in the summer of 1998, coinciding with a World Cup and a general election, journalist Stephen Smith finds himself boarding the Cocaine Train out of Cali, home of Columbia's infamous drugs cartel. Its passengers prey to theives, extortionists and a dozen different varieties of paramilitary, the Cocaine Train is one of the last remnants of a once great railway system, and Smith is riding in it in search of a grandfather he barely knew: Fred Leslie Frost, pioneering railwayman, upright citizen and diplomat, with a Columbian mistress and an illegitimate son. As remote from his suburban British origins as it is possible to imagine.
Stephen Smith has both style and destination, and has written a book that is hard to put down.. this is the sort of book that has you greeting each new page with excitement and anticipation * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
This writer has a good eye for the fleeting and bizarre, and there are some marvellous descriptive passages ... COCAINE TRAIN deserves to share the success of Smith's previous excellent travelogue, FOR THE LAND OF MIRACLES * NEW STATESMAN *
Fascinating ... genuinely brilliant * Jon Snow, OBSERVER *
He is the best sort of reporter: detached, ironic, yet well-versed on the terrain he's exploring ... a compelling portrait of a society on the verge of an ideological breakdown * Douglas Kennedy, INDEPENDENT *
This writer has a good eye for the fleeting and bizarre, and there are some marvellous descriptive passages ... COCAINE TRAIN deserves to share the success of Smith's previous excellent travelogue, FOR THE LAND OF MIRACLES * NEW STATESMAN *
Fascinating ... genuinely brilliant * Jon Snow, OBSERVER *
He is the best sort of reporter: detached, ironic, yet well-versed on the terrain he's exploring ... a compelling portrait of a society on the verge of an ideological breakdown * Douglas Kennedy, INDEPENDENT *
Steven Smith works for Channel 4 news and writes regularly for the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS.
| SKU | Nicht verfügbar |
| ISBN 13 | 9780349111148 |
| ISBN 10 | 0349111146 |
| Titel | Cocaine Train |
| Autor | Stephen Smith |
| Buchzustand | Nicht verfügbar |
| Bindungsart | Paperback |
| Verlag | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Erscheinungsjahr | 2000-08-03 |
| Seitenanzahl | 256 |
| Hinweis auf dem Einband | Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden. |
| Hinweis | Nicht verfügbar |