Masterly Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski died in January, but the reminiscences of his early career as a foreign correspondent are newly published, and they’re a pretty big deal. Wandering from India to Iran to the Congo, Kapuscinski obsessively muses on no less than Herodotus, the Greek “Father of History.” And not just for fun: Like the great man before him, Kapuscinski mingles imagination and fact inquiring into the nature of human motives—and the rise and fall of civilizations.
Travels With Herodotus
Ryszard Kapuscinski; Knopf; $25.