Talking of war, dreaming of peace

Ryszard Kapuściński said of himself that he did not specialize in any particular area: “I simply tried to talk, to observe people and places, and to read—in short, I tried to understand”. This sophisticated writer was also a tireless traveler with a passion for history. In order to write his reports and books, Kapuściński often started from what was apparently a meaningless detail, an everyday gesture—such as when he described an African gentleman busy pressing a shirt with its holes patched many times—and proceeded to draw broad, lively pictures of whole cultures. By living and traveling among the poorest people on the planet, Kapuściński developed the humility of a wise man. Attention-seeking, the quest for celebrity, never tainted his genuine attachment to the simple people whom he so effectively described in his unforgettable pages, some of which will be narrated by Giuseppe Battiston.