Sergio: One Man's Fight to Save the World

Before his death in 2003 in Iraq's first major suicide bomb attack, Sergio Vieira de Mello-a charismatic peacemaker and troubleshooter with the United Nations-was known as a "cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy." He gravitated toward the most significant and dangerous geopolitical crises of the last half-century: Sudan, Lebanon, Cambodia, Bosnia, Congo, Afghanistan, East Timor, and Iraq. Even as Vieira de Mello tried to negotiate an end to slaughter, or to tame warlords and militants, he grappled with the larger questions: When should killers be engaged, and when should they be shunned? When is military force justified? How can outsiders play a role in healing broken people and broken places? He did not merely pose these questions; Sergio Vieira de Mello had to find answers, apply them, and live with the consequences.

With Sergio, Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power offers a profile in courage and humanity-and an unforgettable meditation on how we can confront the perils of the twenty-first century.