Kahawa (Mass Market Paperback)

by Donald E. Westlake (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This 1981 Westlake gem is back in print. A mile-long freight train steams through the heart of Idi Amin's mad, tortured, magical, and corrupt Uganda, loaded down with kahawa (Swahili for coffee). What Amin doesn't know, what his most beautiful spy has not been able to wring out of her latest victim, and what the world's coffee markets may be unable to swallow, is that the train and six million dollars worth of coffee are about to disappear into the hands of a conflicted, colorful, swashbuckling band of mercenaries and moneymakers.

"Kahawa is such a splendid huggermugger that if you don't like it, there's something wrong with you.... No reader that I will ever want to meet should dare complain." --The New York Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
A mile-long, rusty freight train with a cargo of coffee becomes an important target of some of the world's most unscrupulous mercenaries and thieves, who plot to take over the international coffee market. Reprint. NYT.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446403431
• ISBN-13: 978-0446403436
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,167,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read long ago, but not forgotten, February 25, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Angelholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

As I remembered the novel, it was the best I ever read. My rating may have been coloured by my living in Liberia 15 years ago when reading the book. Samuel K. Doe was at the time turning our life upside down (I later lived for some years in Tanzania, bordering lake Victoria). The book is totally different from anything else that I have read from Westlake. Did I find it good if I'm searching for it 15 years later?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kahawa is the "thinking man's adventure novel.", September 20, 1996

By A Customer

You don't read adventures. I don't read adventures. Kahawa is an adventure book worth reading. Kahawa is a well-researched, gloriously well written, carefully characterized adventure novel about a plot to steal a train of freshly harvested coffee from 1970s Uganda. 1970s Uganda and Idi Amin, who is prominently featured in the novel. Kahawa is filled with historical (true!) anecdotes about early Africa, and is set in an accurate portrayal of the horror of Amin's brutal Ugandan dictatorship (which to most people today is just a memory). It's main characters are real people -- not the supermen and fearless heroes found in most adventure novels. And best of all, Westlike writes the story with a touch of humor and wit, giving the reader a look at the stark reality of Uganda, Africa, racism, and piracy while at the same time keeping the reader comfortable with the deeds of the main characters, and hopeful that they will be successful

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, January 7, 2003

By	Bill Thomson "drbillthomson" (Bozeman, Montana USA) - See all my reviews

Understand that this book is a major departure for Westlake, and is darker tham a lot of his other books. This is a good thing, I've read a few of his other books, and while they were ok, Kahawa is simply woderful. By blending some actual figures into the book, Westlake adds realism, which makes it even more gripping. Worth more than 5 stars!