The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari

By Paul Theroux

For all Theroux travel writing fans and particularly the legions of lovers of Dark Star Safari and Eastern Star.

     Acclaimed travel writer Paul Theroux resumes the African trip recounted in his brilliant Dark Star Safari, from Cairo to Capetown down the right-hand of Africa. For ten years he longed to return Capetown, and travel up the the left-hand side to Congo. After 50 years of travel and past retirement age, this is the last trip of this kind the author will take, and this is the story his fans have been waiting for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9780771085222

Paul Theroux

PAUL THEROUX is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

Reviews for The Last Train to Zona Verde

[kaitanya64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Renowned travel writer Paul Theroux returns for one last trip through Africa, where he worked as a young man as a Peace Corp teacher and where he traveled in middle age as described in Dark Star Safari. Theroux is a highly critical and cynical observer, but it is clear he has a special attachment to Africa and his observations, while unromantic, seem quite fair in most cases. He finds a great deal of frustration, unfulfilled promise and personal danger in this trip, but concedes that optimism is generally the territory of the young. He also points out quite reasonably that the urban and environmental problems of Africa are only more accelerated there but are certainly similar to problems all over the world. The view is very focused and you want learn a lot of new information about African history or culture in general from this book. It is, however, a pretty accurate picture of urban Africa.

[juliettehendrikx · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Paul Theroux is my favorite travel writer so this was a tough one to read. Though he has toured Africa many times before, he muses that this may be his last and that alone was a sad thing to read. The subject matter was also heart rending in its detail of crushing soul destroying poverty. The greed of the dictators running the countries he traveled was also very sad to read. All and all a sad book but touching.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Theroux returned to Africa to find out what has changed or improved since his last visit, described in his book Dark Star Africa. His writing is clear and straightforward, with an easy style as if writing to a friend. He visited South Africa, Namibia, and Angola, where he witnessed both great wealth and desperate poverty, rarely anything in between. Given that he was travelling by bus Theroux was brave indeed to venture into Angola, where the situation is particularly bleak. Although the country is rich in oil, gold and diamonds, life for the ordinary person is dire. This is a remarkably interesting book even though many of his findings were disheartening to say the least, and with no solutions in sight. It seems unlikely that growing Chinese involvement will bring about any change for Angolans.

[emed0s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I don't find Mr. Theroux prose specially enticing for its style I do like his eye for the particular and how it relates to social and national patterns. Also I really like the amount of books, related to the locations he visits, that he refers to in the text allowing for further reading in the aspects that one may become curious about.

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Theroux' usual mix of travelogue and social commentary casts a (final in this lifetime)look at West Africa. Besides the cataloging of poverty, injustice, and, at times, downright cruelty, Theroux engages with locals in an attempt to understand the West African situation. Compared to his other books, this one is sadder and more desperate (given the locale).

[untraveller · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Will this be his last travel book? If so, tis a shame. Good thoughtful writing, as always.

[st5croixsue · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Theroux has been one of the preeminent travel writers of my generation, and it is always a pleasure to read his travel narratives that transports the reader to the unlikely outer reaches of civilization. This one is likely his last through Africa, from Cape Town north through Namibia to Angola. While there are a few beautiful and hopeful scenes, there was heat, desolation, poverty, and chaos. Countries wiped clean of all natural resources and filled with insouciance, lassitude and general hellishness. His observations are vivid and the writing is insightful and honest.

[lissaj_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have always enjoyed Paul Theroux's books in the past but I really had to work to get through this one. I think he had some interesting things to say about colonialism and independence, racism and poverty and even about his own aging. However, this book dragged at times and I really didn't think it added anything new to the realm of African travel narratives.

[nemoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Theroux returns to Africa for what purports to be his swansong. Theroux has a history here. As a young man, he spent considerable time in Africa in the Peace Corps. A reasonable inference from this fact is that the young Theroux was a bit of an idealist; he thoughthecould make a difference; he thoughthe could bring meaningful change to Africa. Turns out he was wrong. Theroux has slowly come to terms with this fact, but in this book he seems to have finally matured. Much of Africa is run by gangster plutocrats and international aid has been a joke. What is one to do woth this information? Theroux has no answers.

[bookangel_a · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's obvious that Paul Theroux loves Africa. He has traveled there numerous times and even lived there for a while, teaching school. He writes passionately about this large continent.He decided to return to Africa, now that he is in his seventies, perhaps for the last time, to explore western Africa and see the changes that have come to the continent since he first came there as a young Peace Corps volunteer.Theroux begins in Cape Town South Africa, to Namibia, Botswana, and finally Angola. He gets to fulfill his dream of visiting the bushmen in Namibia, and that chapter is probably the happiest chapter in the whole book. :)It was sad and thought provoking to see how in many African villages they make their poverty into a tourist attraction, taking paying visitors on tour to see their poor living conditions. He also comments often on the foreign aid coming into the continent and whether that aid is really helping to solve the problems of the African people.In addition to the poverty he also visits a resort where wealthy people pay thousands of dollars a night to ride on the backs of elephants and practically sleep in the middle of a safari.I enjoyed how he chose to travel by car and by bus instead of an airplane. Travel this way keeps him down to earth, where he can meet and talk with local people, seeing what life is really like for them.He meets a lot of unique people, both locals and those from overseas. I enjoyed reading the perspectives of a variety of people and how they feel about Africa.When he gets to the end of his trip in Angola the journey gets rather depressing for him because each town is desperately poor in spite of the billions of dollars the country earns in revenue. He decides to end his trip a bit earlier than he planned.I like to travel but I'm not sure if I will get to travel to Africa or not. That's one reason I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed taking the journey along with Theroux and seeing Africa through his eyes and the eyes of the people he meets along the way.

[repb_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well - I managed to finish reading this book - but it was a real CHORE. It was too long - too repetitive - and too boring. The few interesting passages I scrambled to find were effectively overshadowed by his ranting about the ghastly living conditions everywhere he went. Especially in Angola. I've read many of Theroux's books over the years - and should have quit earlier - while I was ahead. I upgraded my original rating of 2 1/2 stars to 3 out of respect for the author.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another brilliant travelogue by Mr Theroux, as he journeys through South Africa (revisiting a few places from earlier 'Dark Star Safari') , Namibia, touches on Botswana's Okavango Delta and on to Angola. The author was 70 when he wrote this and you feel throughout the much older self than in previous works.I think I so like his writing because it's so balanced. He writes with compassion on the horrors of a shanty town, but isn't affraid to ask the locals why- with unemployment rife- they're unable to pick up the appalling litter. There are lovely bits...but a lot of hostility, mess and chaos. Although often on rough local buses and mixing with the dispossessed, he meets up too with teachers...and with the super wealthy in a stay at a luxury elephant ranch (surprisingly this was one of the hardest hitting chapters in the book.)Mr Theroux abandons his longer planned itinerary in Angola- a place wrecked not by poverty but by an entirely corrupt government, keeping the huge oil revenue and leaving the people to stagnate. I was left with a definite sense of Angola- its wildlife almost entirely gone, after years of war - as an entirely ghastly place with no redeeming features."Why would I wish to travel through blight and disorder...the squalid slum in Luanda is ... identical to the squalid slum in Cape Town and Jo'burg and Nairobi. ...We have bestowed on Africa just enough of the disposable junk of the modern world to create in African cities a junkyard replica of the West."Highly readable, intelligent and informative.

[breic-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too much self-important meta-narrative, and not enough travel writing. Theroux generally did not enjoy his trip, with the exception of a stay at a luxury safari lodge. There's none of his humor. I didn't get any insights about South Africa, Namibia, or Angola. > Often, in an overcrowded bus in Africa, I thought of nothing but death, and hating the trip I let out a ghastly laugh when I thought of anyone saying over my battered corpse, “He died doing what he loved.”> It struck me that if I proceeded on my way, it would have been a travel stunt, like riding a pogo stick through the desert. A daredevil effort, and to what end? “Is it worth it?” Apsley Cherry-Garrard asks at the end of The Worst Journey in the World, in talking about the doomed polar trek by Robert Falcon Scott in the Antarctic. Is life worth risking for a feat, or losing for your country?

[addunn3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A depressing account of South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. Somewhat repetitive, but well worth reading for a interesting prospective on modern Africa.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Paul Theroux says it’s his last train ride, I feel sad. I’ve traveled with Theroux across the east side of Africa, across Asia, and now down the west side of Africa. This was not a happy trip for him. He seemed to grow more and more morose as he stopped in various cities across Africa. The poverty, the filth, the despair of the people...all these worked together to bring Theroux’s mood down lower and lower with every stop. Finally, he cut the trip short and went home. It’s possible he may never travel again.I understand, but I can’t help but wish that he would try again, with a brand new location and fresh outlook. I count on him to take me places. I hope he knows that, and I hope he rests and gets back on the road.