Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is, perhaps, The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from the United Kingdom through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best known as a travel writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast. He is also the father of British authors and documentary makers Louis Theroux and Marcel Theroux, and the brother of authors Alexander Theroux and Peter Theroux.

Dark Star Safari is a written account of a trip taken by author Paul Theroux from Cairo to Cape Town via trains, planes, buses, cars, and armed convoy.

Chapters of Book :

1. Lighting Out

2. The Mother of the World

3. Up and Down the Nile

4. The Dervishes of Omdurman

5. The Osama Road to Nubia

6. The Djibouti Line to Harar

7. The Longest Road in Africa

8. Figawi Safari on the Bandit Road

9. Rift Valley Days

10. Old Friends in Bat Valley

11. The MV Umoja Across Lake Victoria

12. The Bush Train to Dar es Salaam

13. The Kilimanjaro Express to Mbeya

14. Through the Outposts of the Plateau

15. The Back Road to Soche Hill School

16. River Safari to the Coast

17. Invading Drummond's Farm

18. The Bus Border Bus to South Africa

19. The Hominids of Johannesburg

20. The Wild Things at Mala Mala

21. Faith, Hope and Charity on the Limpopo Line

22. The Trans-Karoo Express to Cape Town

23. Blue Train Blues