In the travel-writing tradition that made Paul Theroux?s reputation, Dark Star Safari is a rich and insightful book whose itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Going by train, dugout canoe, ?chicken bus,? and cattle truck, Theroux passes through some of the most beautiful ? and often life-threatening ? landscapes on earth. This is travel as discovery and also, in part, a sentimental journey.

Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students, revisits his African friends. He finds astonishing, devastating changes wherever he goes. ?Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it,? he writes, ?hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can?t tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Not that Africa is one place. It is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I got stranded, but I was never bored. In fact, my trip was a delight and a revelation.? Seeing firsthand what is happening across Africa, Theroux is as obsessively curious and wittily observant as always, and his readers will find themselves on an epic and enlightening journey. Dark Star Safari is one of his bravest and best books.

"No mere tale of travel mishaps....Safari is Swahili for journey, and Theroux's is truly fantastic." Library Journal Starred

"His encounters with the natives, aid workers and occasional tourists make for rollicking entertainment, even as they offer a sobering look at the social and political chaos in which much of Africa finds itself." Publishers Weekly

"Engagingly written, sharply observed; another winner from Theroux." Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"Readers of Theroux know that on the road he is cranky. This gives his travel books their seasoning. Here he's especially vexed by those he calls 'the agents of virtue': aid workers mostly, white people usually....Next to agents of virtue, he disdains tourists....This disdain is as facile as it is tiresome...." Harper's

"A genius of the witty insult...Theroux regales us with the humor of ill humor, maintaining a tricky balance of crankiness, curiosity and charm....Dark Star Safari howls with rage at the forgetting that lies beyond neglect, but the real specter haunting this book is old age. The author turns 60 during his trip, and to say he's tetchy about it is a wild understatement....In Dark Star Safari, Theroux reports his first trip into the last leg of life's voyage, and sends back a brooding and apocalyptic report." New York Times Book Review

"Engagingly written, sharply observed: another winner from Theroux." Kirkus

In his first new travel book in eight years, the endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. He endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances with characteristic crankiness; however, "the more difficult Theroux's travel, the more he seems to enjoy himself "(Columbus Dispatch). Theroux's journey in "Dark Star Safari is in many ways a labor of love: in the 1960s, Theroux worked as a teacher and Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda and Malawi, and his trip back to this beloved continent coincides with his sixtieth birthday. Gauging the current state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers, missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightful meditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and its people, and "a vivid portrayal of the secret sweetness, the hidden vitality, and the long-patient hope that lies just beneath the surface" "(Rocky Mountain News).

Contents

1 Lighting Out 1

2 The Mother of the World 6

3 Up and Down the Nile 29

4 The Dervishes of Omdurman 54

5 The Osama Road to Nubia 69

6 The Djibouti Line to Harar 91

7 The Longest Road in Africa 118

8 Figawi Safari on the Bandit Road 149

9 Rift Valley Days 173

10 Old Friends in Bat Valley 195

11 The MV Umoja Across Lake Victoria 225

12 The Bush Train to Dar es Salaam 240

13 The Kilimanjaro Express to Mbeya 261

14 Through the Outposts of the Plateau 278

15 The Back Road to Soche Hill School 304

16 River Safari to the Coast 329

17 Invading Drummond?s Farm 349

18 The Bush Border Bus to South Africa 371

19 The Hominids of Johannesburg 379

20 The Wild Things at Mala Mala 404

21 Faith, Hope, and Charity on the Limpopo Line 418

22 The Trans-Karoo Express to Cape Town 437

23 Blue Train Blues 468