Fracture Zones

It is the year 2018. While in Europe people are still living in a comfort zone, war rages in other regions of the world, state institutions crumble, millions of people are suffering from hunger. The ZEIT newspaper journalist, Wolfgang Bauer has been exploring these fracture zones for years. In his new book, he arranges his most penetrating reportage pieces: the North Korean ghost-ships that wash up on the west coast of Japan; the »Maniac«, a serial killer in Russia’s Volga region; or the odyssey of Pakistani sailors fallen into the hands of pirates at the Horn of Africa. However, this book does also contain stories of hope, such as the IT consultant from Minnesota who returns to his Somali homeland to found a state.

Bauer’s reports reveal political and social reality up-close, in all its complexity. His manner of telling individual stories, unpicking them to illustrate the social and historic backgrounds of regional conflicts, is expertly. He consistently achieves that delicate balance: hope free of naivety, empathy free of kitsch.

With reportages from: Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, Russia and the Ukraine, South Sudan, Somalia, North Korea and Japan, and Sierra Leone.

»Must read. Stolen Girls, their own words, abt surviving Boko Haram, abt which even less is known than N Korea. W Bauer great journalist.« Ashley Judd on Stolen Girls

»Strongly recommend this book that tells tragic, heartbreaking unbelievable stories of stolen girls in Nigeria.« Malala Yousafzai on Stolen Girls

»An absolute expert, Bauer draws us into a world he can explain with all its horrors. In that regard, in explaining, describing and analys ing, alert, with a clear mind and elegant style, he goes way beyond television’s blurry images of war and catastrophe.« Roland Müller, Stuttgarter Zeitung on Stolen Girls