Ryszard Kapuscinski

Introduction by Neal Ascherson In our globalised but increasingly polarised age, Kapuscinski shows how the Other remains one of the most compelling ideas of our times. In this reflection on a lifetime of travel, the renown travel writer takes a fresh look at the Western idea of the Other: the non-European or non-American. Looking at this concept through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the Age of Enlightenment to the postmodern global village.

Den moderna journalistikens mästare i ny, samlad utgåva Tre härskare. Tre regimers kollaps. 1974, kort efter att kejsare Haile Selassie blivit avsatt reser Ryszard Kapuscinski till Etiopien för att genom samtal med kejsarens betjänter och undersåtar teckna bilden av en korrupt despot som i över fyrtio år styrt sitt land med järnhand. Året därpå anländer han till Angola för att rapportera om oroligheterna som brutit ut efter att landet blivit självständigt. Under månaderna som följer bevittnar han hur landet slungas in i det inbördeskrig som skulle komma att rasa i årtionden. Ytterligare några år senare befinner sig Kapuscinski i Iran, där shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavis tid vid makten just har nått sitt slut och revolutionen har banat väg för Ayatollah Khomeinis religiösa styre. Med sin oöverträffade förmåga att kombinera det journalistiska reportaget med litterär konstfärdighet intog Kapuscinski en unik position som författare. Han mottog otaliga internationella priser och har benämnts som »den moderna journalistikens mästare«. Härskares fall: Tre reportage från imperiernas slut samlar Kapuscinskis tre stora reportageböcker i en volym: Kejsaren [1985], Shahernas shah [1986] och En dag till att leva [1987]. I översättning av Britt Arenander. RYSZARD KAPU CI SKI [1932-2007] var en polsk journalist, fotograf, författare och poet. Han arbetade för den statliga polska nyhetsbyrån PAP, och mellan 1956 och 1981 rapporterade han från 27 revolutioner och statskupper världen över.

'A masterpiece ... a moving image of post-war Poland, and the first breathing of one of the essential voices of the twentieth century... the master of literary reportage' The Times Literary SupplementWhen the great traveller-reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski was a young journalist in the early 1960s, he was sent to write about the farthest reaches of his native Poland. The resulting essays brought together here reveal a place as strange as any of the distant lands he visited on foreign assignments: caught between ties to the past and dreams of escape, a country on the edge of modernity.'Kapuscinski trascends the limitations of journalism and writes with the narrative power of a Conrad or Kipling or Orwell' Blake Morrison

Introduction by Neal AschersonIn our globalised but increasingly polarised age, Kapuscinski shows how the Other remains one of the most compelling ideas of our times. In this reflection on a lifetime of travel, the renown travel writer takes a fresh look at the Western idea of the Other: the non-European or non-American. Looking at this concept through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the Age of Enlightenment to the postmodern global village.

Master of transformation Kathryn Hunter brings to life an extraordinary fable of corruption, avarice and the collapse of absolute power. A world premiere based on the astonishing book by legendary journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski about the decline and fall of Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia, from the team that brought you Kafka’s Monkey. Hunter creates a mesmerising cast of characters, all servants to a despotic ruler on the brink of downfall. In a kingdom obsessed with title and tradition, the lowly and the loyal have incredible stories to tell.

From the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales. In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad - perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India - the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took Kapuscinski from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. Revisiting his memories of traveling the globe with a copy of Herodotus' Histories in tow, Kapuscinski describes his awakening to the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of new environments, and how the words of the Greek historiographer helped shape his own view of an increasingly globalized world. Written with supreme eloquence and a constant eye to the global undercurrents that have shaped the last half-century, Travels with Herodotus is an exceptional chronicle of one man's journey across continents.

Travels with Herodotus records how Kapuscinski set out on his first forays – to India, China and Africa – with the great Greek historian constantly in his pocket. He sees Louis Armstrong in Khartoum, visits Dar-es-Salaam, arrives in Algiers in time for a coup when nothing seems to happen (but he sees the Mediterranean for the first time). At every encounter with a new culture, Kapuscinski plunges in, curious and observant, thirsting to understand its history, its thought, its people. And he reads Herodotus so much that he often feels he is embarking on two journeys – the first his assignment as a reporter, the second following Herodotus’ expeditions.

Als "besten Reporter der Welt" würdigte Spiegel online Ryszard Kapuscinski nach seinem Tod im Januar 2007. Seine Bücher wie König der Könige und Meine Reisen mit Herodot gehören inzwischen zum Kanon der Weltliteratur. Die Vorlesungen, die Kapuscinski im Jahr 2004 am Wiener Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen hielt, waren noch einmal seinem großen Thema gewidmet: der Begegnung mit dem Anderen. Kapuscinski erläutert, welche Bedeutung dieser Begriff Emmanuel L?vinas' für seine Arbeit hatte und erfüllt die philosophische Kategorie anhand seiner Erfahrungen als Reisender, Journalist und Publizist mit Leben. Das Vermächtnis eines großen kosmopolitischen Intellektuellen.

Bringing together for the first time in English a selection of poems from his two previously published collections, Kapuscinski offers up a thoughtful, philosophical verse, often aphoristic in tone and structure, that is engaged politically, morally, and viscerally with the world around him. Translated from the Polish.

Eebenpuu sisältää maailmankuulun journalistin Ryszard Kapuscinskin (1932-2007) reportaaseja, jotka kattavat koko mustan Afrikan Ghanasta Etiopiaan ja Etelä-Afrikkaan. Hän näki Afrikan ennen kaikkea ihmisten maanosana, jonka elämä, politiikka ja historia välittyvät henkilökohtaisten kohtaamisten kautta. Eebenpuu kuvaa maanosan historiallista muutosta ja sen ilmenemistä ihmisten ja kansojen elämässä kehityksenä, murroksena ja rappiona.

The Penguin Modern Classics edition of Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Emperor is translated by William R. Brand and Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand, with an introduction by Neal Ascherton. After the deposition of Haile Selassie in 1974, which ended the ancient rule of the Abyssinian monarchy, Ryszard Kapuscinski travelled to Ethiopia and sought out surviving courtiers to tell their stories. Here, their eloquent and ironic voices depict the lavish, corrupt world they had known - from the rituals, hierarchies and intrigues at court to the vagaries of a ruler who maintained absolute power over his impoverished people. They describe his inexorable downfall as the Ethiopian military approach, strange omens appear in the sky and courtiers vanish, until only the Emperor and his valet remain in the deserted palace, awaiting their fate. Dramatic and mesmerising, The Emperor is one of the great works of reportage and a haunting epitaph on the last moments of a dying regime. Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) was born in Pinsk, now in Belarus. Kapuscinski was the pre-eminent writer among Polish reporters. His best-known book is a reportage-novel of the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic regime in Ethiopia - The Emperor, which has been translated into many languages. Shah of Shahs, about the last Shah of Iran, and Imperium, about the last days of the Soviet Union, have enjoyed similar success. If you enjoyed The Emperor, you might like Norman Mailer's The Fight, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Stunning ... a magical eloquence'John Updike, New Yorker'[The Emperor] transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power ... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book'Salman Rushdie'Kapuscinski trascends the limitations of journalism and writes with the narrative power of a Conrad or Kipling or Orwell'Blake Morrison

Shah of Shahs depicts the final years of the Shah in Iran, and is a compelling meditation on the nature of revolution and the devastating results of fear. Here, Kapuscinski describes the tyrannical monarch, who, despite his cruel oppression of the Iranian people, sees himself as the father of a nation, who can turn a backward country into a great power - a vain hope that proves a complete failure. Yet even as Iran becomes a 'behemoth of riches' and as the Shah lives like a European billionaire, its people live in a climate of fear, terrorized by the secret police. Told with intense power and feeling, Kapuscinski portrays the inevitable build-up to revolution - a cataclysmic upheaval that delivered Iran into the rule of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Imperiumi on tarkkanäköinen, kriittinen ja välillä lämpimän humoristinen dokumentti romahtaneesta byrokratiasta, joka kaatui omaan mahdottomuuteensa. Imperiumi kertoo valtiohirviöstä, jonka massiivisesta kaikkivoipaisuudesta tuli itsetarkoitus. Kapuscinski matkusteli Neuvostoliitossa useita kertoja vuosina 1958–1991. Matkoilta kertyi päiväkirjamerkintöjä, haastattelujen muistiinpanoja ja artikkeleita, joihin tämä mukaansatempaava teos perustuu. Imperiumia lukiessa kuulee sekä Kapuscinskin että monen neuvostokansalaisen äänen. Imperiumi on edelleen ajankohtainen tietoteos pohdittaessa Venäjän nykyistä, sangen omalaatuista, markkinataloutta. Vaikkei neuvostojärjestelmää enää olekaan, sen opit vaikuttavat sitkeästi ja pitkään. Ryszard Kapuscinski syntyi vuonna 1932 Pinskissä, Itä-Puolassa. Hän on tehnyt pitkän uran arvostettuna journalistina ympäri maailmaa – hän on raportoinut mm. yli 30 vallankumouksesta monelta mantereelta, usein ainoana ulkomaalaisena toimittajana. ”Kirjailijalla on taito nostaa esiin pieniä yksityiskohtia, muistoja, jotka kuvaavat osuvasti omaa aikansa ja ihmisten tuntoja.” – Veikko Vuorikoski, Aamulehti

'Only with the greatest of simplifications, for the sake of convenience, can we say Africa. In reality, except as a geographical term, Africa doesn't exist'. Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career. In astudy that avoids the official routes, palaces and big politics, he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole and as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations. It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples and practises we call 'Africa', and an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itself as it struggles to escape from foreign domination, from the intoxications of freedom, from war and from politics as theft.