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Salt Spring Island Public Library, 129 McPhillips Ave, Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2T6
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Join Nicholas Coghlan for the launch of his new book Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat's Memoir of South Sudan. Nicholas Coghlan, author of Far in the Waste Sudan and The Saddest Country, served in five Canadian embassies overseas before he was appointed Canada’s first resident ambassador to South Sudan. He lives on his sailboat in Canada’s Pacific Northwest.
The first Canadian diplomat to be posted to war-torn Sudan, Nicholas Coghlan was a natural choice to lead Canada’s representation in the new Republic of South Sudan soon after the country was founded in 2011. In late 2013, Coghlan and his wife Jenny were in the capital, Juba, when it erupted in gunfire and civil war pitted one half of the army against the other, Vice-President Machar against President Kiir, and the Nuer tribe against the Dinka.
This action-focused narrative, grounded by accounts of meetings with key leaders and travels throughout the dangerous, impoverished hinterland of South Sudan, explains what happened in December 2013 and why. In harrowing terms, Collapse of a Country describes the ebb and flow of the war and the humanitarian tragedy that followed, the Coghlans’ scramble to evacuate South-Sudanese Canadians from Juba, and the well-meant but often ill-conceived attempts of the international community to mitigate the misery and bring peace back to a land that has rarely known it. Coghlan’s stark narrative serves as a lesson to politicians, diplomats, aid workers, and practitioners on the breakdown of governance and relationships between ethnic groups, and the often decisive role of international development representatives.
“Collapse of a Country draws from the author’s special perspective as an ambassador who traveled widely through the South Sudan, from 2001 to 2016. His writing is vivid and detailed. Highly recommended.” Choice