The Penguin Modern Classics edition of the book The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski is translated by William R. Brand and Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand, with an introduction by Neal Ascherton. After the ousting of Haile Selassie in 1974, which ended the ancient monarchy of Abyssinia, Ryszard Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia to find the surviving courtiers and listen to their stories. Their voices, candid and ironic, depict the rich and corrupt world they had lived in - from ceremonies, hierarchies, and court intrigues to the adventures of the ruler who maintained absolute power over his impoverished people. They describe his inevitable downfall as Ethiopian military forces approach, strange signs appear in the sky, and courtiers disappear, until only the Emperor and his servant remain in the deserted palace, awaiting their fate. Dramatic and captivating, The Emperor is one of the great works of reportage and a haunting epitaph for the final moments of a fallen regime.
Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) was born in Pinsk, now in Belarus. He was the foremost author among Polish journalists. His most famous work is the reportage-novel on the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic regime in Ethiopia - The Emperor, which has been translated into many languages. Shah of Shahs, concerning the last Shah of Iran, and Imperium, dealing with the final days of the Soviet Union, have achieved similar success.
If you liked The Emperor, you may also be interested in The Fight by Norman Mailer, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
“Amazing... a magical fluency” - John Updike, New Yorker
“[The Emperor] transcends reportage and becomes a nightmare of power... A unique, grotesquely comic, and ultimately compassionate book” - Salman Rushdie
“Kapuscinski transcends the limitations of journalism and writes with the narrative power of Conrad or Kipling or Orwell” - Blake Morrison
Pages: 192, Dimensions: 13x13cm
