Investigative journalist Dan Morrison hired a boat builder, summoned a childhood buddy, and set out paddling from Jinja, Uganda, down the White Nile toward Cairo. Four thousand miles, two companions, and several other means of local conveyance later, he emerged on the Mediterranean. The story Morrison tells of this spectacular—and spectacularly harrowing—journey is a mash-up of narrative travel writing, investigative reportage, and current history, resulting in a thoughtful, funny, and frightful trip across a region whose people are trying to claw their way from war and poverty to something better.