Invictus - Carlin [0]
PENGUIN BOOKS
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Epigraph
Introduction
CHAPTER I - BREAKFAST IN HOUGHTON
CHAPTER II - THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE
CHAPTER III - SEPARATE AMENITIES
CHAPTER IV - BAGGING THE CROC
CHAPTER V - DIFFERENT PLANETS
CHAPTER VI - AYATOLLAH MANDELA
CHAPTER VII - THE TIGER KING
CHAPTER VIII - THE MASK
CHAPTER IX - THE BITTER-ENDERS
CHAPTER X - ROMANCING THE GENERAL
CHAPTER XI - “ADDRESS THEIR HEARTS”
CHAPTER XII - THE CAPTAIN AND THE PRESIDENT
CHAPTER XIII - SPRINGBOK SERENADE
CHAPTER XIV - SILVERMINE
CHAPTER XV - DOUBTING THOMASES
CHAPTER XVI - THE NUMBER SIX JERSEY
CHAPTER XVII - “NELSON! NELSON!”
CHAPTER XVIII - BLOOD IN THE THROAT
CHAPTER XIX - LOVE THINE ENEMY
EPILOGUE
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Acknowledgements
A NOTE ON SOURCES
INDEX
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconnquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
—William Ernest Benley (1849-1903)
Praise for Invictus
A Washington Post and Financial Times Best Book of the Year One of The Independent ’s 20 Best Books of the Year
“This wonderful book describes Mandela’s methodical, improbable and brilliant campaign to reconcile resentful blacks and fearful whites around a sporting event, a game of rugby. . . . There are scenes that will open your tear ducts. . . . If Invictus were not so well written, it would deserve a place among the management tomes and self-help books that dominate business bestseller lists—a guide to leadership that plays to people’s better angels. . . . Don’t wait for the movie.”
—Bill Keller, The New York Times Book Review
“I think the way [Carlin] carried out his task in South Africa [in the 1990s] was magnificent. It is easy now for a journalist to criticize everybody, including the government, but in those days you could count journalists with that courage on the fingers of one hand.”
—Nelson Mandela
“A triumphant conversion . . . A book that captures both the miracle of South Africa’s transition and the miracle of Mandela the politician. . . . This is not a sports book. It is a portrait of South Africa’s answer to George Washington and it works because Carlin got so close to Mandela and the people Mandela seduced. . . . This is, above all, the book of a great reporter.”
—Financial Times
“Mandela’s story never fails to inspire . . . [but John Carlin] is the first to tell the tale through the prism of sport. . . . Carlin brings the story alive. . . . Many writers reveal the nuts and bolts of South Africa’s transformation to non-racial democracy. But few capture the spirit as well as Mr. Carlin.”
—The Economist
“One of the best sports books I’ve ever read.”
—Jim Caple, ESPN
“If you have any doubts about the political genius of Nelson Mandela, read John Carlin’s engrossing book inspired by a rugby game. . . . The book is a slice of feel-good history. It also is a behind-the-scenes look at Mandela’s tactics in unifying a nation when that seemed impossible.”
—USA Today
“Forget rugby: this is an all-knowing portrait of Nelson Mandela by one of the journalists who knows him best.”
—Financial Times
“A classic sports-brings-the-community-together story.”
—The Washington Post
“[An] absorbing and frequently uplifting tale . . . The book is an imaginative and captivating study of the twentieth century’s greatest African. . . . The magic of Invictus lies in its heart-warming anecdotes. Carlin had access to all the protagonists, including Mandela himself, and he teases some fantastic recollections out of them.”
—The Christian Science Monitor