Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line - Hardcover

Stewart, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565123808 ISBN 13: 9781565123809

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2002

Synopsis

Ian Stewart has reported from some of the most dangerous places on earth, but none more dangerous than Sierra Leone. When he was named West Africa bureau chief by the Associated Press, Stewart accepted his new assignment with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. He was one of the AP's youngest bureau chiefs, and over the next year he reported from the front lines of the war-ravaged countries of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone and coordinated news coverage of some twenty-three others.

AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.

About this title

About the Author:

A graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, Ian Stewart has reported from more than 40 countries. At the age of twenty-seven, he was appointed bureau chief of UPI's South Asia bureau. He later joined the Associated Press and was named bureau chief of its West Africa bureau in 1998. He lives in Berkeley, California.

From Publishers Weekly:

A self-confessed "war junkie," Stewart covered the frontlines in Kashmir, Cambodia and Kabul before being appointed chief of the Associated Press's West Africa bureau in 1998. Single, in his late 20s, Stewart freely admits being addicted to the "adrenaline rush" of covering dangerous situations; he loved the edginess of beating other reporters to a hard-to-cover story. Apart from the thrills, he had a journalist's sense of mission: that by telling the world about what's happening, he could awaken the public conscience and make a difference. Stewart's game ended at a checkpoint in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when a renegade soldier fired on his vehicle, killing fellow journalist Myles Tierney and leaving a bullet in Stewart's brain. Stewart tells of his recovery: airlift out of Africa, surgery in London and therapy in the U.S. and Canada. He discusses at length his struggle to rehabilitate his torn body, but it's his understated battle to make peace with his uneasy soul that grips the reader. While the adjective-loaded, gung-ho approach to danger in the book's first half may turn off some readers, they'll be rewarded if they sit tight. By the second half, when Stewart's in a hospital bed paying more than his dues, a wiser person begins to emerge, less of a hot-dogger, more thoughtful about the human terms of situations. Readers can then remember that the real story is not the reporter, but the people they were sent to cover.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1565123808
• ISBN 13: 9781565123809
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320