"Absorbing."--Booklist"Comprehensive and well written. . . . Anyone genuinely interested in the affairs of this all-important world body, ultimate guarantor of peace and stability, should definitely read it."--The Irish Times"Stanley Meisler has made the U.N. story come alive as a flesh-and-blood drama of outsized egos clashing over high-stakes issues."--Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief, Los Angeles TimesRarely does a prominent world figure cooperate with a biographer who offers no say over the book's contents, no prepublication examination of the manuscript, and no guarantee that the final product will present its subject in a positive light. In Kofi Annan, former Los Angeles Times foreign and diplomatic correspondent Stanley Meisler traces Annan's unconventional rise from optimistic student to striving personnel and budget specialist in the United Nations bureaucracy to full-time manager of the world's crises.Kofi Annan presents a unique portrait of this widely admired leader--with his own view of events tempered and augmented by those of his allies and opponents, defenders and detractors. It is a must-read for anyone interested in diplomacy, international affairs, war and peace, and the daunting task of saving the world from the ravages of war.