Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade - Softcover

"One of the first books about the cocaine trade and it is still among the best." --Norman Mailer "A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank full of ether. . . . Sabbag is a whip-song writer." --Hunter S. Thompson "One of the best books about drugs ever written." --Robert Stone "One of the most dazzling and spectacular pieces of reporting I have ever read." --Nora Ephron "An extremely rare cut of dry wit, poetry, rock-hard fact and relentless insight." --Rolling Stone "A triumphant piece of reporting." --The New Yorker "A witty, intelligent, fiercely stylish, drug-induced exemplary tale." --Los Angeles Times "The ultimate slide down the precipice of hip." --Susan Brownmiller "A classic." --The National Review "After reading Robert Sabbag's Snowblind, one is overcome with a sense of having finally understood America. It is that rare kind of book that compels a reader to call up all of his friends and read passages to them over the telephone. It is destined to become an American classic." --Claude Brown, Jr. "A beautifully written book." --Rita Mae Brown "The most authentic story of the big-time cocaine trade that has hit print, and Sabbag tells it with novelistic razzle-dazzle, setting down knife-sharp scenes as the action moves: Mexico, New York's big hotels, Harlem streets, Bogota's high and low-life . . . scenes and characters that make your skin crawl. A compelling read." --Publishers Weekly "It's excellent . . . characters leaping to life right out of Hemingway and Damon Runyon, and everywhere, supercharging, that fine electric dust of Cordilleran snow. I hate to think of what Sabbag must have gone through to write it." --Richard Rhodes "An immensely entertaining book." --Newsweek "Alternately scary and funny, wherein an incident or an insight is compressed and polished to an impressive sheen." --Baltimore Sun "This is a glorious and glittering piece of craftsmanship--like good surgical steel . . . an exciting, living story--beautifully told, addictively readable, and as urgent as a siren coming to a sinister stop in front of where we all live." --Davis Grubb "Fascinating." --Houston Chronicle "Rip-roaring . . . a marvelous, cheerful adventure of modern times."--Washington Star "It's a challenge to put the book down." --Florida Times-Union "The style is charged with energy." --Boston Phoenix "Robert Sabbag is one beautiful writer." --Nashville Banner "An impeccably researched, carefully written book that reads at times like an adventure story." --Worcester Telegram "A meticulous study . . . fascinating." --Library Journal "Hip and often very funny . . . provocative . . . and utterly convincing." --Miami Herald

Robbert Sabbag's Snowblind, the true story of an American smuggler whose intricate, ingenious scams made him a legendary figure in the cocaine world of the late sixties and early seventies, is a modern classic. In this "witty, intelligent, fiercely stylish, drug-induced exemplary tale" (Los Angeles Times), Sabbag masterfully traces Zachary Swan's Roman-candle career, from his first forays into smuggling marijuana to his jaunts to Colombia to buy pure cocaine, and his ever more elaborate plans to outwit the police and customs officials. Updated by the author and featuring a newly designed cover, this captivating portrait of a dashing antihero and enthralling look at a turbulent age is sure to reach a new generation of readers.