Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War

At age twenty-two, fresh out of college and passionate about photography, Deborah Copaken Kogan moved to Paris and began knocking on photo agency doors, begging to be given a photojournalism assignment. Within weeks, she was on the back of truck in Afghanistan with a huge bag of cameras and film strapped to her tiny frame, the only woman -- and unfortunately, the only journalist -- in a convoy of rebel freedom fighters. She had traveled to Afghanistan with a handsome but dangerously unpredictable Frenchman, and the saga of both their relationship and the assignment is the first of Shutterbabe's six page-turning chapters, each covering a different corner of the globe and each intimately linked to the man Kogan was involved with at the time. From Zimbabwe to Romania, from to Russia to Haiti, Kogan takes her readers on a heartbreaking yet surprisingly hilarious journey through a mine-strewn decade, her personal battles -- sexism, battery, life-threatening danger -- blending seamlessly with the historical ones -- wars, revolutions, unfathomable suffering -- that it was her job to record. Shutterbabe is a thrilling coming-of-age story, told with humor and uncommon wisdom, about how one woman fought her way onto battlefields, and the horrors, truths, and love that she discovered there.

Review :
" Shutterbabe is the rarest of all memoirs: a book by someone with the courage and passion to live an extraordinary life and the grace and wit to write meaningfully about it." -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point" " A wise and unforgettable book, written with courage and love and intelligence and humility and humor by a remarkable woman who, through hard searching and a compassionate heart, has found all the right words with which to tell her extraordinary life." -- John Burnham Schwartz, author of "Reservation Road" " A riveting account of one woman's journey through the minefields of love and photojournalism." -- Robert Stevens, photo editor, "Time " " A candid, sexy, and very funny romp that makes photojournalism seem like an X-treme sport. Deborah Copaken Kogan goes out and wrings enough terrifying heroics from the last bits of the twentieth century to make T. E. Lawrence jealous." -- John Hockenberry, author of "Moving Violations" " Not since Margaret Bourke-White has a woman lived in such danger, documented it so fully, and immersed herself so fiercely in the entanglements of love. Here is a mesmerizing, honest, personal drama unfolding right on the edge of political violence." -- Katie Roiphe, author of "The Morning After" "Shutterbabe is the rarest of all memoirs: a book by someone with the courage and passion to live an extraordinary life and the grace and wit to write meaningfully about it." -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point "A wise and unforgettable book, written with courage and love and intelligence and humility and humor by a remarkable woman who, through hard searching and a compassionate heart, has found all the right words with which to tell her extraordinary life." -- John Burnham Schwartz, author of "Reservation Road "A riveting account of one woman's journey through the minefields of love and photojournalism." -- Robert Stevens, photo editor, "Time "A candid, sexy, and very funny romp that makes photojournalism seem like an X-treme sport. Deborah Copaken Kogan goes out and wrings enough terrifying heroics from the last bits of the twentieth century to make T. E. Lawrence jealous." -- John Hockenberry, author of "Moving Violations "Not since Margaret Bourke-White has a woman lived in such danger, documented it so fully, and immersed herself so fiercely in the entanglements of love. Here is a mesmerizing, honest, personal drama unfolding right on the edge of political violence." -- Katie Roiphe, author of "The Morning After