Safari in Swahili means a journey, typically a long one. In Dark Star Safari, Theroux's itinerary is African, from Cairo to Cape Town - down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda and beyond to South Africa. Journeying by train, boat and cattle truck, he passes through some of the most beautiful and often life-threatening-landscapes on earth.
This is travel as discovery, but it is in part a sentimental journey. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first travelled in Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students and revisits his African friends.
Seeing first-hand what has happened in Africa in those four decades of independ-ence, 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 of travel.
Paul Theroux was born and educated in the United States. He has written numer-ous travel books and novels, most recently Sir Vidia's Shadow, a memoir of his friendship with Sir Vidia Naipaul; Fresh-Air Fiend, a collection of travel writings; and the highly acclaimed novel Hotel Honolulu.