Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo

By Anjan Sundaram

Categories: Travel

Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo (2014) is a memoir by journalist Anjan Sundaram. Sundaram describes leaving a banking career to work as a freelance reporter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He portrays the poverty, violence and daily improvisation of stringer life, and the difficulty of getting the country's story into foreign papers and wire services. The memoir reads as an apprenticeship in seeing a vast country through narrow assignments.

Recommended by 1 person

• Fareed Zakaria: “This week's book of the week is "Stringer" by Anjan Sundaram. It's an excellent debut book of reportage on the Congo, one of the most corrupt and broken countries in the world. The book is also the author's personal journey. He was a mathematician in the U.S. when he decided to buy a one-way ticket to the Congo. The result is a very well-written book.”