A Training School for Elephants

An informative, well-researched retracing of a colonial-era African expedition that brings alive the preposterous “grab for Africa,” from the acclaimed author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia

In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants — if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephant...