Download or read book Flight of the Diamond Smugglers A Tale of Pigeons Obsession and Greed Along Coastal South Africa written by Matthew Gavin Frank and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Unforgettable. . . . An outstanding adventure in its lyrical, utterly compelling, and heartbreaking investigations of the world of diamond smuggling.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air. Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions. From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town. Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands. Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).
Download or read book Flight of the Diamond Smugglers written by MATTHEW GAVIN. FRANK and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A propulsive investigation into the curious role that carrier pigeons play in South African diamond smuggling 'A lyrical portrait of a resilient species caught in the grinding gears of a cruel industry of extraction and exploitation.' Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief In 2016, Matthew Gavin Frank travelled along South Africa's notorious Diamond Coast to report on the illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating this trade - particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air. Investigating a long overlooked true-crime story dating back to the founding of the De Beers Corporation, Frank weaves interviews with local diamond divers who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental mangers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, revealing how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.
Download or read book The Garden Without Walls written by Coningsby Dawson and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Garden Without Walls" by Coningsby Dawson is a singular that unfolds against the backdrop of World War I, supplying a poignant exploration of human relationships and the effect of war on the lives of individuals. Coningsby Dawson, a British author and soldier born in 1883, draws upon his personal reports as a participant inside the battle to infuse authenticity into this compelling narrative. The tale revolves around the protagonist, Philip Arnold, who, like Dawson, serves as a soldier at some stage in the Great War. The novel delves into the psychological and emotional toll of the battle, portraying the demanding situations confronted by way of infantrymen and the stress it puts on their personal lives. At its middle, "The Garden Without Walls" is a reflection on the human situation in times of crisis, analyzing issues of love, loss, and the resilience of the human spirit. Dawson's writing captures the nuances of conflict, presenting readers a glimpse into the camaraderie amongst soldiers, the cruel realities of the battlefield, and the profound effect on individuals and their loved ones. The novel is going past the traditional conflict narrative, focusing on the internal struggles and variations of its characters.
Download or read book Barolo written by Matthew Gavin Frank and published by At Table. This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the worlds most esteemed wines Barolo summons up images of steeply terraced vineyards and all the elegance and sophistication of Italys Piedmont. Chicago raised Frank became obsessed with food early in life and eventually embarked on a restaurant career. But his first trip to Italy transformed his palate, and he plotted an immediate return, apparently as much attracted by the lovely Raffaella as by the opportunity to immerse himself in life in the tiny hamlet of Barolo, which lends its name to the local wine. Living in a tent in her garden, he took on a job harvesting grapes at one of the regions most notable vineyards. Frank developed a deep appreciation for the Piedmontese, their careful attention to their wines and to their foods, especially that culinary crown jewel, the highly prized Alba truffle. Besides conveying the sensuality of the place, Frank offers insight into the regions history.
Download or read book McMafia written by Misha Glenny and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2009-01-19 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drugs, weapons, migrant labour, women — these are just a few of the many goods that effortlessly cross national borders in this globalized age, often without the knowledge or permission of the nations concerned. How is this remarkable criminal feat managed?From gun runners in the Ukraine, to money launderers in Dubai, cyber criminals in Brazil, racketeers in Japan, and the booming marijuana industry in western Canada, McMafia builds a breathtaking picture of a secret and bloody business.Internationally celebrated writer Misha Glenny crafts a fascinating, highly readable, and impressively well-researched account of the emergence of organized crime as a globalized phenomenon and shows how its secret and bloody business mirrors both the methods and the rewards of the legitimate world economy. Employing his journalistic talent and his prior experience covering organized crime in Eastern Europe, Glenny reports on his travels around the planet to investigate this worrying and worsening situation. After comprehensively surveying the criminal scene, Glenny ends by considering the future of organized crime. McMafia is an important book that assembles all the pieces of this worldwide puzzle for the first time.
Download or read book The World That Never Was written by Alex Butterworth and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling history of the rise of anarchism, told through the stories of a number of prominent revolutionaries and the agents of the secret police who pursued them. In the late nineteenth century, nations the world over were mired in economic recession and beset by social unrest, their leaders increasingly threatened by acts of terrorism and assassination from anarchist extremists. In this riveting history of that tumultuous period, Alex Butterworth follows the rise of these revolutionaries from the failed Paris Commune of 1871 to the 1905 Russian Revolution and beyond. Through the interwoven stories of several key anarchists and the secret police who tracked and manipulated them, Butterworth explores how the anarchists were led to increasingly desperate acts of terrorism and murder. Rich in anecdote and with a fascinating array of supporting characters, The World That Never Was is a masterly exploration of the strange twists and turns of history, taking readers on a journey that spans five continents, from the capitals of Europe to a South Pacific penal colony to the heartland of America. It tells the story of a generation that saw its utopian dreams crumble into dangerous desperation and offers a revelatory portrait of an era with uncanny echoes of our own.
Download or read book Tristes Tropiques written by Claude Levi-Strauss and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A magical masterpiece."—Robert Ardrey. A chronicle of the author's search for a civilization "reduced to its most basic expression."
Download or read book Preparing the Ghost An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer written by Matthew Gavin Frank and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-07-07 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Shelf Awareness Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this “slyly charming” (New York Times Book Review) account of the giant squid. In 1874, Moses Harvey—eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist—was the first person to photograph the near-mythic giant squid, draping it over his shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In Preparing the Ghost, what begins as Harvey’s story becomes spectacularly “slippery and many-armed” (NewYorker.com) as Matthew Gavin Frank winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In his full-hearted, lyrical style, Frank weaves in playful forays about his trip to Harvey’s Newfoundland home, his own childhood and family history, and a catalog of peculiar facts that recall Melville ’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. “Totally original and haunting” (Flavorwire), Preparing the Ghost is a delightfully unpredictable inquiry into the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess.
Download or read book The Empress written by S. J. Kincaid and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrilling sequel to S.J. Kincaid’s New York Times bestselling novel, The Diabolic, which TeenVogue.com called “the perfect kind of high-pressure adventure.” It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite. But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress. Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it?
Download or read book Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster s Forgotten Realms written by Wizards RPG Team and published by Wizards of the Coast. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comprehensive description of the Forgotten Realms, one of the most well known Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.
Download or read book Spanish America written by Charles Reginald Enock and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Collected Prose written by Robert Hayden and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-08-02 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A collection of essays on poetry and the experiences that influenced poet Robert Hayden. Contents include "The History of Punchinello: A Baroque Play in One Act," Hayden's introductory remarks to volumes like Kaleidoscope: Poems by American Negro Poet and The New Negro, and interviews with Hayden."
Download or read book Precious written by Helen Molesworth and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2024-09-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned jewelry expert recounts her career working with nature’s most extraordinary treasures—gemstones—and traces these rare jewels from ancient Egyptian records through the high-stakes auctions of today. Helen Molesworth has been captivated by precious stones since early childhood but she struggled to join the gemstone industry, having no connections to the few family-run companies that have dominated the field for centuries. She persevered, and more than two decades later, Molesworth is now an international authority hired to appraise the extraordinary jewelry of such clients as the British royal family. Precious is packed with inside stories about fabulous jewels associated with generations of celebrities, from Cleopatra (emerald) to Catherine, Princess of Wales (sapphire); from Marilyn Monroe (pearl) to Beyoncé (garnet); from Jackie O (pearl) to Lady Gaga (diamond); and from Marie Antoinette (pearl) to Elizabeth Taylor (pearl, ruby, and emerald)! As Molesworth tells it, the history of gemstones is the history of humanity. And so she journeys the world, navigating African diamond mines, Colombian emerald mines, and the sapphire-rich rivers of Sri Lanka to study gems at their source. She has selected ten of nature’s most dazzling gems, tracing their discovery to when these cut-and-polished masterpieces first adorned empresses and kings. From the stories of a priceless emerald watch hidden under floorboards for centuries to the common quartz fashioned into world-famous royal jewels, and diamonds selling for multi-millions, Precious is not just a chronicle of archeology and geology, high society and high finance, it’s the story of our timeless ambition to make—and wear—something beautiful.
Download or read book Dictatorship and Political Police written by E.K. Bramstedt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-27 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1998. Initially written in the period between 1942 and 44, with additional notes in the appendices of 1945, this volume looks at the areas of the secret Police, the secret control as developed by Fascism and National Socialism as laid on the Third Reich and the relationship between the law and the Political Police and their co-ordination with propaganda and the impact of the instrument of terror on the people.
Download or read book The Drummond Affair written by Stephanie Matthews and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2024-06-06 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A serious reinvestigation full of revealing background information that sheds additional light on what was then and now remains a shocking crime' Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking 'This riveting, eye-opening investigation of a 70-year-old murder mystery reads like a whodunit ... A true crime must-read' Dean Jobb, author of The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream 'As much social history as it is gripping true crime' Jeremy Craddock, author of The Jigsaw Murders 'A meticulously researched re-examination' Caitlin Davies, author of Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths 1950s France. A British establishment figure. A shocking crime. A miscarriage of justice. The search for truth. In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer's son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies: a husband and wife shot dead, their ten-year-old daughter savagely beaten to death. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history. Sir Jack Drummond was a senior advisor to the British government, a household name who was respected and admired. His fame made the case a cause celebre in France and resulted in the swift conviction of a local farmer, but questions about Drummond's life and death remain unanswered. In this bold new investigation, Stephanie Matthews and Daniel Smith strip away the prejudice and propaganda to reveal a grave miscarriage of justice. A light is shone on Drummond's secret life in the shadows of the Cold War, painting a portrait of an enigmatic man who may not have been the innocent holidaymaker he appeared to be, and recasting one of the twentieth century's most notorious murders in a fascinating and important new light.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers written by Lee Server and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an introduction to American pulp fiction during the twentieth century with brief author biographies and lists of their works.
Download or read book Ester and Ruzya written by Masha Gessen and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “extraordinary family memoir,”* the National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History reveals the story of her two grandmothers, who defied Fascism and Communism during a time when tyranny reigned. *The New York Times Book Review In the 1930s, as waves of war and persecution were crashing over Europe, two young Jewish women began separate journeys of survival. Ester Goldberg was a rebel from Bialystok, Poland, where virtually the entire Jewish community would be sent to Hitler’s concentration camps. Ruzya Solodovnik was a Russian-born intellectual who would become a high-level censor under Stalin’s regime. At war’s end, both women found themselves in Moscow. Over the years each woman had to find her way in a country that aimed to make every citizen a cog in the wheel of murder and repression. One became a hero in her children’s and grandchildren’s eyes; the other became a collaborator. With grace, candor, and meticulous research, Masha Gessen, one of the most trenchant observers of Russia and its history today, peels back the layers of time to reveal her grandmothers’ lives—and to show that neither story is quite what it seems. Praise for Masha Gessen “One of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation.”—David Remnick, The New Yorker “Masha Gessen is humbly erudite, deftly unconventional, and courageously honest.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
