Nemesis
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  • Published: 17 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473521384
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 7 min
  • Narrator: Misha Glenny
  • RRP: $22.99

Nemesis

One Man and the Battle for Rio

Formats & editions
EBook
17 Sep 2015
Audiobook
17 Sep 2015
Paperback
19 Sep 2016
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‘Breaking Bad’ meets ‘City of God’ in this gripping account of an ordinary man who became Brazil’s most wanted criminal

His name was Antonio, but they would call him Nem. From the infamous favela of Rocinha in Rio, he was a hardworking young father forced to make a decision that would turn his world upside down.

Nemesis is the story of an ordinary man who became the king of the largest slum in Rio, the head of a drug cartel and perhaps Brazil’s most wanted criminal. A man who tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution, while everyone around him drew guns and partied. It’s a captivating tale of gold-hunters and evangelical pastors, bent police and rich-kid addicts, quixotic politicians and drug lords with maths degrees.

Spanning rainforests and high-security prisons, filthy slums and glittering shopping malls, this is also the story of how change came to Brazil. Of a country’s journey into the global spotlight, and the battle for the beautiful but damned city of Rio, as it struggles to break free from a tangled web of corruption, violence, drugs and poverty. With Nem at its centre, locked in a fight for his country’s future.
  • Published: 17 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473521384
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 7 min
  • Narrator: Misha Glenny
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Misha Glenny

Glenny is a distinguished investigative journalist and historian. As the Central Europe Correspondent first for the Guardian and then for the BBC, Glenny chronicled the collapse of communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He has won several major awards for his work, including the Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting and is the author of five books, including the acclaimed McMafia and DarkMarket.

portrait photo of Misha Glenny

Also by Misha Glenny

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DarkMarket
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The Fall of Yugoslavia
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Praise for Nemesis

Breaking Bad meets City of God

Roberto Saviano

A magnificent work of reportage by turns raw and courageous

Ian Thomson, Evening Standard

A thrillingly vivid picture of another Rio… [Nemesis] confirms Glenny’s status as one of the most daring and original true-crime writers of today... A rich and riveting book

Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday

A dynastic 50-year Shakespearean sweep of organised crime that manages to be both intimate and alarming

John Kampfner, Observer

A fast-paced crime story that paints a vivid picture of life in the sprawling favelas

Joe Leahy, Financial Times

Misha Glenny, an award-wining investigative journalist and expert on organised crime, has turned his attention to the drugs, violence and poverty that thrive in Rocinha, Rio’s most infamous favela

Andreas Campomar, Spectator

Glenny doesn’t just write books; he lives them

John Kampfner, Guardian

gripping narrative of cocaine and slaughter

Andreas Campomar, Spectator

fascinating dive into Brazil’s terrifying underworld, where the stakes are all or nothing...Nemesis reads like a fast-paced thriller

James Hider, The Times

Glenny’s book is fast paced and journalistic.

Bryan McCann, Times Literary Supplement

Nemesis is revelatory.

Tony Allen-Mills, Sunday Times

A taut and thrilling narrative…his hands-on research is exemplary… Nemesis is a triumph: the violent, kinetic City of God brought up-to-date on the page.

Alan Bett, Skinny

A gripping picture of an ordinary man driven to fateful choices.

Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday
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