Tony Wheeler's Dark Lands

In a follow-up to 2010's Bad Lands, Wheeler travels to eight more countries mired in conflict and strife to report on their conditions, history, and cultures. In Colombia, he documents a visit to the Lost City and outlines the extensive failures of the U.S. War on Drugs. Wheeler describes Haiti as Cinderella with "no Prince Charming...no glass slipper, no happily ever after" and documents the crumbling infrastructure following the 2010 earthquake. His take on Israel and Palestine is nuanced and extensive, crammed with descriptions of landmarks and features "argumentative taxi drivers, stone-tossing teenagers, pushy border officials and inept pickpockets." Wheeler astutely remarks of the Democratic Republic of Congo that "any country that puts %E2%80%98democratic' in its name is clearly not democratic" and recalls the nation's post-independence troubles, largely at the hands of Mobutu Sese Seko. In Papua New Guinea, Wheeler visits the downed bomber jet of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor and the abandoned Panguna copper mine which he describes as resembling a "post-apocalypse movie set." He breaks down the myriad economic woes in Nauru as well as those of Zimbabwe. There are plenty of tips and warnings for visitors about things like photography, malaria outbreaks, and lodgings, but it is Wheeler's sensible thoughts on topics like demographics, the consequences of colonialism, and drone strikes that are most useful for the perspective they provide. (Sept.)