My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...an Auto-Misadventure Across
by Jeroen Van Bergeijk

Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa.

With the wit and insight of Maarten Troost's Sex Lives of Cannibals and Tony Horwitz's Baghdad without a Map--and the philosophical underpinnings of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance--My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. Van Bergeijk finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to a Dakar Road Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry-mostly by the border guards-and a teenaged, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived.

My Mercedes Is Not for Sale captures more than the adventure-it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture.

ZB8695    My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ou     $12.95

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