Few people have witnessed more scenes of chaos and conflict around the world than Anderson Cooper, whose groundbreaking coverage on CNN has changed the way we watch the news. In this gripping, candid, and remarkably powerful memoir, he offers an unstinting, up-close view of the most harrowing crises of our time, and the profound impact they have had on his life.

After growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown, an attraction to the far corners of the earth. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, including the fame surrounding his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and the tragic early deaths of his father and older brother. As a reporter, the frenetic pace of filing dispatches from war-torn countries, and the danger that came with it, helped him avoid having to look too closely at the pain and loss that was right in front of him.

But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life, his family's troubled history from the suffering people he met all over the world. From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to the starvation in Niger and ultimately to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place, both physically and emotionally, when the normal order of things is violently ruptured on such a massive scale. Cooper had been in his share of life-threatening situations before -- ducking fire on the streets of war-torn Sarejevo, traveling on his own to famine-stricken Somalia, witnessing firsthand the genocide in Rwanda -- but he had never seen human misery quite like this. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals for the first time how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth.

Striking, heartfelt, and utterly engrossing, Dispatches from the Edge is an unforgettable memoir that takes us behind the scenes of the cataclysmic events of our age and allows us to see them through the eyes of one of America's most trusted, fearless, and pioneering reporters.

内容简介： 联合国儿童基金会，受战争影响儿童代言人伊斯梅尔·比亚震撼世界的战争回忆 全球35个国家联手推出，美国2007年连印35版行销65万的最畅销自传 2007年纽约时报华盛顿邮报年选佳作，2007年亚马逊书店非虚构类最佳图书 联合国儿童基金会报告，二零零七年武装组织雇佣的儿童超过二十五万，其中年龄最小的只有六岁。这些童兵颁在全球十多个冲突地区。武装组织往往使用物质诱饵误导他们对战争产生兴趣，继而达到雇佣童兵的目的。武装组织不仅仅会把这些孩子当作战争工具，而且洞天福地让他们充当报信者、间谍和搬运工的角色。更为严重的是，相当数量的孩子还被武装人员当作性奴。全球现有童兵中，女孩约占百分之四十，她们通常最易受到性侵害。保护儿童权益，帮助儿童尽早回归社会，为儿童创造一个可以享有权利的世界，是人类一个迫在眉睫的挑战。 这是世界上所有人都应该阅读的一本书。不仅因为书中故事令人震撼，更因为这本书明晰地启示了我们内心深处的良知和责任。人们应当阅读这本书，通过这本书来了解世界，认识人之所以为人最为重要的是什么。 塞拉利昂少年，家破人亡，流浪四方，遭军方强征放伍，变成一名冷血童兵。恐惧死亡的无辜孩童，一夕之间成了草菅人命的杀人机器。 比亚是那些生活在世界各地年轻人的代表，他们的生命受到暴力、贫穷的伤害和其他权利的侵犯。对成为暴力的牺牲品的青年来说，对那些为使禁锢在武装冲突中的孩子放下武器和获得重生而努力的人来说，比亚是希望的极具说服力的象征。 本书是一部作者写自己12岁时被西非塞拉利昂叛军抓去充当职业军人经历的童兵自传。作品叙述在塞拉利昂1991年至2002年间的内战中，主人公比亚从一个普通小男孩变成了一个无家可归的的孤儿。为躲避叛军的抓捕，他只得逃到非洲的沙漠和丛林中流浪，但他还是被叛军抓住，充当了一名职业军人。从此他从一个天真无邪的儿童变成了叛军的一部杀人机器，过着血腥的生活。后来在联合国儿童基金会的救助下，他摆脱了魔爪的控制，在美国完成了高中学业。他心中又充满了光明和希望，决心为保卫世界和平和全世界儿童的幸福贡献自己的力量。此书刚出版2个月，就进入纽约书报畅销书非文学类排行榜，受到文坛好评。 那天晚上我们看到的最后一个受伤的人是个妇女。她背上背的是她的孩子，血顺着衣服淌下来，在她身后流了一路。她狂奔逃命时孩子中弹身亡了。幸运的是，子弹没穿透孩子的身体。她跑到我们站立的地方，坐在地上，把孩子放下来。原来是个女孩，两只眼睛大睁着，脸上还挂着戛然而止的笑。子弹头从她肿胀的身体上冒出尖尖的头。母亲俯在女孩身上，使劲摇晃着。她悲痛惊骇至极，欲哭无泪。

Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

Book Description The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truely astonishing - a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity. Book Dimension length: (cm)17.5 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)10.3