THE PIRATES OF SOMALIA Inside Their Hidden World

Sunil Malhotra narrates this adventurous account of the author’s search for Somali pirates. The story starts with the young Bahadur, who is trying to break into journalism when he drops everything and flies to Somalia to see if he can find a unique angle to the news stories of modern-day pirates. If this nonfiction plot sounds implausible—better suited to Hollywood—the precise and detailed text proves that this is anything but a screenwriter’s fantasy. Malhotra portrays the fears of the Canadian author as he navigates the dangers in East Africa and recounts the personal lives of the pirates who attracted the attention of the international media. Malhotra’s dramatizations of specific pirates are slow, specific, and well articulated, particularly in his handling of the Arabic words and names. M.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2011]