In 1964 Ryszard Kapuściński was appointed by the Polish Press Agency as its only foreign correspondent, and for the next ten years he was ‘responsible’ for fifty countries.
He befriended Che Guevara in Bolivia, Salvador Allende in Chile and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. He reported on the fighting that broke out between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 around their matches to determine which one of them would qualify for the 1970 World Cup.
By the time he returned to Poland he had witnessed twenty-seven revolutions and coups. The Soccer War is Kapuściński’s eyewitness account of some of the most defining moments in twentieth-century history.
Listening to the Heartbeat
Ryszard Kapuscinski understood the pitfalls of news reporting perfectly. He eschewed any pretence of being a dashing correspondent and wrote of the strange drive that propelled him to dangerous,...
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