This book sat on my shelf for so long the store at which I bought it is no longer in business.And when I picked it out of my unread stack, I wondered what lead me to buy it in the first place.The writing is impressive. The stories of the wars are told with distance and dispassion as a journalist would tell them. The violence and atrocities are all the more terrifying because of that.The characters of the roving journalists who meet covering the wars in Africa are well-developed and help tell the story while not being the total story themselves.The overall story arc of the relationships among the journalists comes to a climax in an ambush which could have been avoided if not for petty jealousy - personal, not professional jealousy.The ending is perfect. a stunning achievement. "I feel slightly guilty about giving it two stars as it wasn't a bad book it just had few redeeming features. It was quite frankly a bit dull - with no characters to sympathise with as they were all a bit irritating. The back drop of Africa has been done so many times before there wasn't really much here that was originial. At times it felt more like the authors memoirs than a fiction book which makes me wonder how appropriate the Booker nomination is - I don't think it is likely to be shortlisted. The best bits of the book were those that revolved around Cartwright (easily the best character in the book) but these were few and far between."
Good read, brilliant plot twist. A great insight into '90s Africa violence and atrocities.
—BASEBALLBILL
This was okay, but seemed to be missing something. More later.
—Geo
First one I abandoned on the Booker list.
—Tieu