Partner Since
2+ YearsPublisher | Harpercollins Publishers |
ISBN 13 | 9781841154220 |
ISBN 10 | 1841154229 |
Book Description | A story of grim comedy amid the apocalypse and a celebration of the sheer indestructibility of the human spirit in a nation run riot: Michela Wrong's vision of Congo/Zaire during the Mobutu years is incisive, ironic and revelatory. Mr Kurtz, the colonial white master, brought evil to the remote upper reaches of the Congo River. A century after Conrad's `Heart of Darkness' was first published, Michela Wrong revisits the Congo during the turbulent era of Mobutu Sese Seko. From the heart of Africa comes grotesque confusion: pink-lipsticked rebel soldiers mingle with track-suited secret policemen in hotels where fin de siecle dinner parties are ploughing through vintage wines rather than leave them to the new regime. Congo, the African country richest in natural resources, has institutionalised kleptomania. Everyone is on the take. Someone has even swiped one of the uranium rods from the country's only nuclear reactor. Having presided over unprecedented looting of the country's wealth, Mobutu, like Kurtz, retreated deep within the jungle to his palace of marble floors and gold taps. A hundred years on and nothing has changed. |
Editorial Review | `A stylish account of the absurd as well as the tragic.' Sunday Times `This book will become a classic.' Economist |
About the Author | Michela Wrong has been a foreign correspondent since joining Reuters after University and has worked extensively in Africa for the BBC and has also worked for the Sunday Times. She now writes for the Financial Times. |
Language | English |
Author | Michela Wrong |
Publication Date | 16 September 2011 |
Number of Pages | 336 |
In The Footsteps Of Mr Kurtz Paperback English by Michela Wrong - 16 September 2011