Chasing Hope
A Reporter's Life
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and best-selling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism
“Nick Kristof takes us behind the scenes as he risks his life to shine a light on the world’s most pressing problems and blaze a trail to a better future. In a time when trust in journalism is in jeopardy, his honesty, humility, and humanity are rays of hope.”—Adam Grant, author of Hidden Potential
Since 1984, Nicholas Kristof has worked almost continuously for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist, becoming one of the foremost reporters of his generation. Here, he recounts his event-filled path from a small-town farm in Oregon to every corner of the world.
Reporting from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, while traveling far afield to India, Africa, and Europe, Kristof witnessed and wrote about century-defining events: the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of working-class America. Fully aware that coverage of atrocities generates considerably fewer page views than the coverage of politics, he nevertheless continued to weaponize his pen against regimes and groups violating basic human rights, raising the cost of oppression and torture. Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading.
Kristof writes about some of the great members of his profession and introduces us to extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic. Side by side with the worst of humanity, you always see the best.
This is a candid memoir of vulnerability and courage, humility and purpose, mistakes and learning—a singular tale of the trials, tribulations, and hope to be found in a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this impassioned memoir, New York Times journalist Kristof (coauthor with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, of Tightrope) looks back on a career spent exposing injustice. Kristof recaps his experiences covering 40 years of conflicts, social movements, and civil rights abuses, including reporting on communist Poland's 1981 crackdown on Solidarity protests; the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, for which he and his wife won a Pulitzer Prize; the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq; the plights of child sex slaves in Cambodia; and the genocide committed by the Sudanese government in Darfur, for which he won another Pulitzer. Along the way, Kristof referees Times office politics and drolly considers the paper's editorial whims ("If an editor's dog is diagnosed with cancer, then prepare for a series about the scandalous cost of veterinary care"). The tone can slip into self-regard: Kristof preens over a college term paper that a professor called "extraordinarily well-written," and is sure to mention that cider from his Oregon apple orchard has won gold medals. Still, Kristof's powerful reportage makes for a gripping look at both the craft of journalism and the humanitarian disasters he's witnessed. Photos.
