A spectacular modern-day adventure along the Nile River from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea With news of tenuous peace in Sudan, foreign correspondent Dan Morrison bought a plank-board boat, summoned a childhood friend who'd never been off American soil and set out from Uganda, paddling the White Nile on a quest to reach Cairo-a trip that tyranny and war had made impossible for decades. Morrison's chronicle is a mashup of travel narrative and reportage, packed with flights into the frightful and the absurd. Through river mud that engulfs him and burning marshlands that darken the sky, he tracks the snarl of commonalities and conflicts that bleed across the Nile valley, bringing to life the waters that connect the hardscrabble fishing villages of Lake Victoria to the floating Cairo nightclubs where headscarved mothers are entertained by gyrating male dancers. In between are places and lives invisible to cable news and opinion blogs: a hidden oil war that has erased entire towns, secret dams that will flood still more and contested borderlands where acts of compassion and ingenuity defy appalling hardship and waste of life. As Morrison dodges every imaginable hazard, from militia gunfire to squalls of sand, his mishaps unfold in strange harmony with the breathtaking range of individuals he meets along the way. Relaying the voices of Sudanese freedom fighters and escaped Ugandan sex slaves, desert tribesmen and Egyptian tomb raiders, The Black Nile culminates in a visceral understanding of one of the world's most elusive hotspots, where millions strive to claw their way from war and poverty to something better-if only they could agree what that something is, whom to share it with, and how to get there. With the propulsive force of a thriller, The Black Nile is rife with humor, humanity and fervid insight-an unparalleled portrait of a complex territory in profound transition.

从维多利亚湖到地中海的尼罗河上的一次壮观的现代探险 随着苏丹脆弱和平的消息传来，外国记者丹-莫里森买了一艘木板船，召集了一位从未离开过美国土地的童年朋友，从乌干达出发，在白尼罗河上划船，寻求到达开罗--几十年来，暴政和战争使这一旅行成为不可能。莫里森的纪事是旅行叙事和报告文学的混合体，充满了惊险和荒诞的内容。通过吞噬他的河泥和使天空变暗的燃烧的沼泽地，他追踪了流淌在尼罗河流域的共同点和冲突的咆哮，使连接维多利亚湖艰苦的渔村和开罗漂浮的夜总会的水变得栩栩如生，在那里戴头巾的母亲被旋转的男性舞者取悦。在这两者之间是有线电视新闻和评论博客所看不到的地方和生活：一场隐藏的石油战争抹去了整个城镇，秘密的水坝将淹没更多的地方，在有争议的边境地区，同情心和聪明才智的行为抵御了令人震惊的苦难和生命的浪费。当莫里森躲避各种可以想象的危险时，从民兵的枪声到沙尘暴，他的不幸与他沿途遇到的各种令人惊叹的人和谐地展开。黑尼罗河》转述了苏丹自由战士和逃亡的乌干达性奴隶、沙漠部落成员和埃及盗墓者的声音，最终使人们对世界上最难以捉摸的热点地区之一有了直观的了解，在那里，数百万人努力从战争和贫困中挣扎着走向更好的生活--只要他们能同意这种生活是什么，与谁分享，以及如何到达那里。黑尼罗河》具有惊悚片的推动力，充满了幽默、人性和狂热的洞察力，是对一个处于深刻转型期的复杂地区的无与伦比的描述。