My First Coup d'Etat chronicles the coming of age of John Dramani Mahama in Ghana during the dismal postindependence "lost decades" of Africa. He was seven when rumours of a coup reached his boarding school in Accra. His father, a minister of state, was suddenly missing, then imprisoned for more than a year.

My First Coup d'Etat offers a look at the country that has long been considered Africa's success story. Mahama's is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his stories work on many levels - as fables, as history, as cultural and political analysis, and, of course, as the memoir of a young man who would grow up to be vice president of his nation. Though non-fiction, these are stories that rise above their specific settings and transport the listener into a world all their own; one that straddles a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else.