SAQI BOOKS

Assassinating Shakespeare

by Thomas Goltz

In 1976, Thomas Goltz, then a naive twenty-one-year-old on the trail of his errant brother, worked his way around Africa putting on one-man Shakespeare performances. This impulsive trip saw him wandering through the cities and villages of East, Central and Southern Africa. His first port of call, after hitchhiking through Eastern Europe and the Middle East, was war-torn Ethiopia. Close encounters followed, with bandits, missionaries, guerrillas, prostitutes, savvy street kids, unrequited loves and, of course, ordinary, Shakespeare-loving Africans.

REVIEWS:
'The funniest history book I've ever read.' Margot Kidder 'The very definition of literate adventure. I laughed at length.' Tim Cahill, author of Lost in My Own Backyard 'A rollicking, on-the-road adventure story that is by turns laugh-out-loud hilarious and deeply affecting.' Scott Anderson, author of Triage 'I was thrilled, entertained, amused, and, yes, occasionally shocked by Thomas Goltz's youthful adventures and indiscretions in post-colonial Africa.' Valerie Hemingway, author of Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways '...hardly the average backpacker...Goltz is arrested and mugged in Ethiopia; he has to sleep in a cardboard box while destitute in Mombasa; is refused entry to Rhodesia, and thrown in jail for ten days in Botswana after inadvertently insulting a border official...'TLS

AUTHOR BIO:

Praise for Assassinating Shakespeare

'With the benefit of hindsight and an exquisite sense of the absurd, Thomas Goltz has turned his memories of a post-drama-school tour of Africa in the late 1970s into an insanely entertaining travel book ... And, far from being assassinated, Shakespeare emerges unscathed.'

New York Times

'hardly the average backpacker ... Goltz is arrested and mugged in Ethiopia; he has to sleep in a cardboard box while destitute in Mombasa; is refused entry to Rhodesia, and thrown in jail for ten days in Botswana after inadvertently insulting a border official ...'

Times Literary Supplement

'Very funny, and gives fascinating insights into war-torn Ethiopia and the seedier sides of low-budget travel and segregationist Africa.'

New Statesman

'Packed with hilarious anecdotes ... but beyond the perilous and the funny, Goltz taps into every emotion at just the right pitch.'

Litcrits.com

'An insanely entertaining travel book.'

International Herald Tribune

'Funny, bizarre and sometimes frightening.'

Morning Star

'Goltz has earned the reputation of an intrepid war correspondent ... He reveals an inimitable brand of travel writing ... the travelogue is sordidly unique, honed to a point so fine that mimicry becomes virtually impossible.'

Missoulian

'Mr Goltz is something of a legend.'

Wall Street Journal