Next time they'll come to count the dead

war and survival in South Sudan

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Nick Turse: Next time they'll come to count the dead (2016)

146 pages

English language

Published Jan. 21, 2016

OCLC Number:
923553400

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5 stars (1 review)

For six weeks in the Spring of 2015, award-winning journalist Nick Turse traveled on foot as well as by car, SUV, and helicopter around war-torn South Sudan talking to military officers and child soldiers, United Nations officials and humanitarian workers, civil servants, civil society activists, and internally displaced persons--people whose lives had been blown apart by a ceaseless conflict there. In fast-paced and dramatic fashion, Turse reveals the harsh reality of modern warfare in the developing world and the ways people manage to survive the unimaginable. Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead isn't about combat, it's about the human condition, about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, about death, life, and the crimes of war in the newest nation on earth.

1 edition

Review of "Next time they'll come to count the dead" on Goodreads

5 stars

Nick Turse’s incredibly vivid and bracing recounting of the dire situation in South Sudan was difficult to read not because of prose, but because of the constant inhumanity. He expertly highlights the fragility of a new nation midwifed and largely ignored by the United States. This is a nation carrying the ghosts of decades of civil war and ethnic-based killing.

From the countless individual stories of suffering to the grandiose political and social obstacles the country faces, Turse carefully tells each narrative with the attention of a witness. He reserves judgment for the heinous while maintaining a reverence for human life that shines through mayhem he relates.

Read this book to understand what despair looks and sounds like, what resilience looks and sounds like, and then go on with your renewed sympathy and empathy and lift the world up however you can.

Subjects

  • Politics and government
  • War victims
  • Ethnic conflict
  • Journalists