Bad News

Description

In a dictatorship it wasn’t the facts that determined one’s life, it was the claims, the whispers, feelings.

Hearing a grenade blast in the city of Kigali, journalist Anjan Sundaram headed towards the sound. When he arrived, however, traffic circulated as normal, there was no debris, and the policeman on duty denied anything had happened. There had been a cover-up, a cloaking of the discontent in Rwanda and a silencing of the media.

Bad News is the heart-racing account of the battle for free speech in modern-day Rwanda. Following not only journalists who stayed, despite fearing torture or even death from a ruthless government, but also those in exile, it is a story of newspapers being shut down, of the power of surveillance, terror and corruption, and of great courage.

Sundaram tells the true narrative of Rwandan society today, and of the fight to make explosions heard.

Praise:

‘A superb exposé . . . a desolate work, taut prose describing the stifling atmosphere of a nation trapped in fear.’ Guardian

‘Powerful and shocking.’ Sunday Times 

‘A powerful evocation of the foreign correspondent’s experience.’ The Times 

‘Sundaram captures the paranoia one feels in a country where citizens are both censored and self-censoring [with] delicate and evocative prose.’ Irish Times 

‘One of the finest works of reportage in living memory.’ Australian 

‘Harrowing.’ Irish Examiner

‘Nothing less than the best book written about Rwanda by an outsider, a massively important contribution to understanding what is one of Africa’s most important, inscrutable, regimes.’ Richard Poplak 

‘A chilling and valuable account of conditions inside Rwanda.’ Sunday Herald

‘A chilling chronicle of the creeping totalitarianism taking hold in Rwanda that is as disturbing as it is unforgettable.’ Jon Lee Anderson

‘Thoughtful and evocative . . . His clipped and lucid prose offers an illuminating look into a place too often ignored by the rest of the world.’ Graeme Smith, author of The Dogs Are Eating Them Now