Zach Vertin & Carolyn Kormann

Author, foreign policy expert, and former diplomat Zach Vertin spent eight years living, working, and reporting from South Sudan, the birth of which was celebrated the world round—a triumph for global justice and the end of one of the world’s most devastating wars. But the party would not last long; South Sudan’s freedom-fighters soon plunged their new nation back into chaos, shattering the promise of liberation and exposing the hubris of their American backers. Vertin’s A Rope from the Sky is propelled by characters both inspired and ordinary, with their aspirations matched by insecurities, their sins by courage and kindness. It is first a story of hope, power, greed, compassion, and conscience-shocking violence from the world’s most neglected patch of territory. But it is also a story about the best and worst of America–both its big-hearted ideals and its difficult reckoning with the limits of American power amid a changing global landscape. Vertin discusses his new book and these extraordinary events with Carolyn Kormann of The New Yorker.