Road Work

"Painstakingly reported stories about losers, oddballs and con men" from the #1 New York Times–bestselling journalist and author of Black Hawk Down ( The New York Times Book Review).   This riveting anthology collects the most diverse and far-reaching of Mark Bowden's award-winning nonfiction—"with fascinating features on Norman Mailer, the war against terror, and even a Philadelphia Zoo gorilla, Bowden's range is broad" ( Entertainment Weekly).   Whether traveling to Rhode Island where one of the largest cocaine rings in history is uncovered, or to the Luangwa Valley in Zambia where anti-poachers fight to save the black rhino, Bowden takes us down rough roads previously off-limits: the top-secret world of Guantanamo Bay; Saddam Hussein's post 9/11 days on the run; a pimp's inside track on police corruption in Philadelphia; and Al Sharpton's campaign trail.   Bowden also invites readers along to meet a small-town high school football team, farmers who make bras for cows, the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia, and to see Disney World with a wide-eyed group of terminally ill children.   In Road Work, Mark Bowden "fashion[s] prose that reads like good fiction, with the bonus that his stories are true" ( The New York Times Book Review).   "Astute character reading and solid research combine with ingenious and stylish prose: a superior portfolio from a journalist who stays at the top of his game." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review   "Bowden is unlike any other journalist . . . Superb reporting, a fine mind conceiving the story line, and a compelling writing style lead to something approaching immortality." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch