Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) was a famous Polish journalist, photographer, and poet who was born in Pinsk which was then in Poland. Kapuscinski's work is hailed as among the greatest literary journalism of the 20th century. In 1964, Kapuscinski started to serve as the only foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency and had to cover events in fifty countries. This led him to see wars, coups and revolutions across the world.

When Kapuscinski next came home, he had seen twenty-seven revolutions or coups, survived forty jail sentences, and endured four death sentences. Kapuscinski's books show great craftsmanship particularly with respect to narrative, psychological analysis, and the use of metaphor. Kapuscinski routinely spent months reading the literature of a country that he was to visit.

This mastery shows up clearly in Imperium. Kapuscinski demonstrates a deep familiarity with the cultures of the Soviet republics even in some of the...