- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition, First Printing edition (21 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002570599
- ISBN-13: 978-0002570596
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.7 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
517,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Africa > Somalia
- #26 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Eastern > Somalia
The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War
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Review
‘A masterpiece.This is a hugely ambitious book, a history of his family’s involvement with Africa over 70 years … riveting.’ Matthew Leeming, The Spectator
‘He captures brilliantly the voracity of the global media and is only too aware of his own role in ‘feeding the beast’. The life of war correspondent is well chronicled: fear, disgust and adrenaline pervade Hartley’s writing as he describes their doings…he leaves the reader with a mesmerising portrait of his beloved Africa’s unhappy squalor.’ Charlie Campbell, Time Out
‘A powerful blend of family history and war correspondent’s memoir…searing, deeply instructive memoir.’Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph
'A lyrical, passionate memoir of this dark continent. On the surface, Hartley's book professes to explore why his father and so many other Englishmen of his generation turned time and time again to Africa. Its real aim is far more ambitious: to explore the motives of many generations of white people – good and bad, but mostly confused – who have washed up on Africa's wilder shores of love. His judgement of the foreign politicians who have involved themselves in the continent is tough without being hysterical. And he has a sure pen for character… he writes best about the dichotemies within himself – his ache for Africa, his rage at its horrors, his longing for peace' The Economist
‘Aidan Hartley's heartbreaking love affair with Africa shines through in this stunning memoir…the result is a breathtaking work, an epic part-autobiography, part-biography. As he unravels Davey's story, Hartley turns out passages of aching beauty which will invite comparisons with that other desert love story, Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. Hartley's engagement with his central character is so rich in detail and affection that the pages slip by far too fast.' The Scotsman
Hossain Amini, Academy Award Nominated Screenwriter of The Wings of the Dove
Hartley’s book is heartbreaking, achingly beautiful, and shockingly honest. Rarely has a writer bared their soul to such magnificent effect.
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First Sentence
My father was the closest thing I knew to the immortal. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
My father was the closest thing I knew to the immortal. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The title of Aidan Hartley's book - the Zanzibar Chest - is an arresting one, but it has actually little to do with the contents of the book itself. We can read fragments of the diaries found in the camphor chest belonging to his father - written by a Peter Christmas(!) Davey, his friend - who had spent his early years in Arabia in the '30s and, speaking arabic, was employed as a political officer for the British government. In this role he was expected to broker peace between the feuding tribes so some sort of development could begin. Davey fell in love with a local woman, around which is woven a beautifully described and romantic story, with vivid descriptions of the Yemen of the period, its architecture, and its people. At the same time, and this really is the principal subject of the book, we read of the author's own experiences in Africa, from the time he was born there, his first vague recollections, and the experiences of his own parents during their early lives about which the author describes vividly the results of the "winds of change" blowing through Africa at the time. However,it's as if the author is too modest to say "this is what I have done with my life" and has found an excuse to write his memoirs - despite his still being only 35 - and to use the story of his father's friend as a leitmotif for writing the book. The story that is really gripping - until the last page - is of Aidan Hartley's own experiences - and derring-do - in what have been the most dangerous places on earth, as a "stringer" for Reuters, working with them in places from Bosnia to Rwanda, from Ethiopia to the Sudan, from Somalia to Burundi. He describes in horrific detail what he has witnessed, and although at the time he finds sufficient moral strength to support the unsupportable, we realise, reading between the lines, that years later he was haunted by, and bore the consequences of, these experiences. His book is full of drama and humour; historically and politically we put it down having learnt more than when we picked it up (not altogether surprising as part of his erudition stems from a Master's from the School of African and Oriental Studies, a degree in Politics from London University, and, also, incidentally a degree in English from Oxford). However, academic accomplishments aside, it takes someone of outstanding character and courage to face the hardships and dangers to which Aidan Hartley subjected himself in his years working as a journalist. His writing skills are prodigious -each page of his book comes to life with his descriptions of human relationhips (his extraordinary friends); horror (the massacres witnessed in Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda)and excitement (his daring exploits in Ethiopia, and surviving a plane crash!), against beautifully described backdrops of the regions in which he lived. His own personal feelings about himself and his work sometimes penetrate the pages, adding another dimension to this remarkable book, which, as one reviewer says, deserves to become a classic.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As an NGO worker based in Nairobi, ‘The Zanzibar Chest’ was a must read for me. However Hartley has not just rattled off the 1990's well documented ‘New World Order’ war stories. He has used the backdrop of his own life as a Nairobi based Reuter’s hack to delve into not just his own family history but also that of long-term family friend Peter Davey, a British Colonial Officer based in Aden in the 30's with the seemingly impossible mandate of conflict resolution long before the term was invented.
Of the three stories, his own, as a sometimes brutally honest and frequently hilarious account of his journalistic work is the most interesting and it appears the subject matter he is most comfortable with. However the concurrent Davey story, and the author’s seeming need to reconcile himself with his vastly elevated father-figure, whose affirmation appears still being sought from the pages of this memoir long after the man's death, definitely make this a more interesting read.
Aside from the above, Hartley, like many others who witnessed so much carnage through the 90’s, appears still haunted by the horror. This is not shied away from, rather used as a stick to beat the reader over the head in its extraordinary descriptiveness. From the beer, prostitute and drug soaked nightlife of Nairobi’s underbelly, to the shocking descriptions of some of the cruellest acts ever committed on this planet, to the gentle stories of love and families trying to survive each other, Aidan Hartley takes the reader with him.
This is a sometimes complex story that twists and turns, hauls you in then spits you back out again, but always engages you as it makes its way towards its conclusion, and it seems, some well earned peace for its author.
Its fantastic.... buy it!
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I would absolutely recommend this startling book to ANYBODY for at least two reasons:
First, Hartley's account of Africa-its beauties and its horrors-is the most candid, fair and honest I've ever read. As one who reads a lot on Africa and has traveled there many times, I am often sickened by the spin and slant that many authors give their books. They are anti-colonial, anti-American, anti-globalization or anti-something else. They use Africa as a medium to push thier own agendas. But Hartley's account displays neither the pride nor the prejudice of his peers. He is frank, even blunt-both about what he sees and his own response to it. He puts his story out there, for better or worse, willing to accept any verdict.
Second, the experiences he relates in this book are powerful, eye-opening and moving. I reached a point about half way through the book where I couldn't put it down. I was absolutely horrified, but I couldn't stop reading. I felt sick, stunned, outraged and energized. I was deeply disturbed by his accounts of events I thought I already knew well. Tears sprang to my eyes often and I choked back sobs more than once. And yet I turned the last page with a deeper love and appreciation for Africa and its people, as well as a firmer resolve to do my part to help this troubled land.
Read this book. If you can't afford to buy it, borrow it or check it out from the library. A few here have sited weaknesses in The Zanzibar Chest. Fair enough, but this book's strengths so far outweigh any weaknesses that it's no contest. Read it! And thank you Aidan Hartley!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
When Journalism becomes harrowing.
Perhaps one of the finest documents of a life tied to modern Africa. There is probably a misconception of those who moved to Africa from Europe; colonialism is not a word used... Read more
Published 5 months ago by pagghtm
A chest fullof stories
Wow in this wonderful book Aidan Hartley interspaces his own life story with that of one of his father's friends who died before Aidan was born . Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. Browne
zanzibar chest
I could not put this book down until I had finished it. Amazingly believable but shocking account of war zones in Africa, mingled with a touching and poignant story. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mj paterson
Not your average father and son story
This amazing book, at its heart, is about the contrast of two distinct generations and perspectives: that of a post-modern war correspondent on the ground and often embedded during... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Karen Kwa
Extradordinary - everyone should read this
This is an extraordinary book - both in terms of its subject matter and the skill in which the various conflicts - and indeed the author's own history - are woven together into a... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Jevcg
Absorbing, fascinating & evocative.
An extraordinary book. Compelling, horrifying, heart-warming, evocative of Africa at its best and worst. Anyone who loves the continent should read it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by James Penhaligon
Destined for Greatness
The title shows what I think, you need hardly read on.
Eh, still here? Well ok, the brilliance of this book lies in its riveting power to evoke so yearningly and... Read more
Eh, still here? Well ok, the brilliance of this book lies in its riveting power to evoke so yearningly and... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2009 by Fab Clark
A moving narrative but lacking as an in-depth comment on the post...
Aidan Hartley's `Zanzibar Chest' interweaves four strands - the horrors of Somalia and Rwanda, the life of Hartley's father, the life of Hartley's father's friend Peter Davey, and... Read more
Published on 28 July 2009 by Geoff Crocker
Wonderfully colourful but not quite what it seems
An excellent read but I was disturbed to discover (from The Sunday Telegraph on 31st May 2004) that parts of this are fiction. Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2004
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