Book 24, Country 28 - Congo Brazzaville

Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol – translated from Catalan and first published in English in 2008

I was going to read Brazzaville Beach for Congo Brazzaville but I was dismayed to find when I started it that it isn’t set in Congo Brazzaville at all but in a fictitious place called Brazzaville.  I suppose I should have guessed this, as Brazzaville is a long way from the sea!  Despite lots of library catalogues indexing this book as being set in Congo Brazzaville, having read it I am not convinced that it is set there rather than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

I’m puzzled why a Catalonian would want to write what is a very British old fashioned adventure story but I’m glad he did, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  There are two interlocking stories.  The narrator, Tommy Thompson is an aspiring ghostwriter scraping a living in London.  In 1914 he is offered the chance to ghost write the story of Marcus Garvey, who is awaiting trial for the murder of his two employers, aristocrats Richard and William Carver, on a gold-hunting expedition in the Congo.  His employers were brutal murderers who mistreated their Congolese workers.  However there is another layer to the story – a mysterious race of underground people called Tectons.  Marcus falls in love with a Tecton woman called Amgam but the rest of the Tectons are very hostile.  7/10

25^th August 2010