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MORE PRAISE FOR FLIGHT OF THE DIAMOND SMUGGLERS
“A fantastic adventure, powerfully propelled by Matthew Gavin Frank’s insatiable curiosity, his incredible capacity for wonder, and his boundless, attentive compassion.”
—Matt Bell, author of Scrapper
“Matthew Gavin Frank has done something new and wonderful in his mining of the many places where birds and gems and companionship live, deep within the alternately brutal and profound chambers of the human heart.”
—Elena Passarello, author of Animals Strike Curious Poses
“A work of wonderment, an investigation of the unexpected genius of one of our planet’s great survivors, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a reminder of the marvels of exploration, the debt we owe to birds, and the quiet redemption that can come from rediscovering just how strange the world really is.”
—Charles King, author of Gods of the Upper Air
“Matthew Gavin Frank is only getting better, book by book, more willing and able to both get the story—and this is a great one: dramatic, revealing, beautiful, and odd—and to make the story get more of us, to open it up further, to pull the whole world into it, so it seems like nearly everything I imagine or could want can be found in it, this weird and engrossing tale.”
—Ander Monson, author of I Will Take the Answer
“A brilliant journey into the wild and parched heart of South Africa’s diamond industry becomes an unexpected and luminous meditation on love and loss. Dreamlike and unforgettable.”
—Jennifer Percy, author of Demon Camp
“A breathtaking and propulsive portrait of an illicit global trade—and a compassionate testament to a most peculiar accomplice.”
—John D’Agata
“There is no living essayist better at weaving wildly disparate worlds into a single, gorgeously lyrical whole. Flight of the Diamond Smugglers finds meaning in pigeons, diamonds, murder, love, and lost pregnancies. It is a journey with its own wild logic.”
—Kerry Howley, author of Thrown
Author’s Note
WITH THE EXCEPTION OF HISTORICAL FIGURES, PUBLIC FIGURES, AND my partner, Louisa, all names have been changed. Certain quotes have been reconstructed from memory, to the best of my ability.
Other books by Matthew Gavin Frank
The Mad Feast
Preparing the Ghost
Pot Farm
The Morrow Plots
Warranty in Zulu
Sagittarius Agitprop
Barolo
Copyright © 2021 by Matthew Gavin Frank
All rights reserved
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Frank, Matthew Gavin, author.
Title: Flight of the diamond smugglers : a tale of pigeons, obsession, and greed along
coastal South Africa / Matthew Gavin Frank.
Description: First edition. | New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020028156 | ISBN 9781631496028 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781631496035 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Diamond smuggling—South Africa. | Diamond mines and mining—
South Africa. | Homing pigeons—South Africa.
Classification: LCC HJ7104.5.Z5 F63 2021 | DDC 364.13360968—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028156
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