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English
Harper Collins
23 February 2015
David van Reybrouck's 'Congo' traces the fate of one of the world's most critical, failed nation-states, second only to war-torn Somalia: the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This extraordinary book is already an international bestseller, recipient of the prestigious Prix Medicis essai 2012 and the AKO Literature Prize, and is widely regarded as a modern masterpiece. Van Reybrouck takes us through several hundred years of history, bringing some of the most dramatic episodes in Congolese history. 

Here are the people and events that have impinged the Congo's development - from the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley to the tragic regime of King Leopold II; from global indignation to Belgian colonialism; from the struggle for independence to Mobutu's brutal rule; and from the world famous Rumble in the Jungle to the civil war over natural resources that began in 1996 and still rages today.

Van Reybrouck interweaves his own family's history with the voices of a diverse range of individuals - charismatic dictators, feuding warlords, child-soldiers, the elderly, female merchant smugglers, and many in the African diaspora of Europe and China - to offer a deeply humane approach to political history, focusing squarely on the Congolese perspective and returning a nation's history to its people.

By:  
Imprint:   Harper Collins
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 42mm
Weight:   450g
ISBN:   9780007562930
ISBN 10:   0007562934
Pages:   656
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

David Van Reybrouck is an award-winning author, acclaimed playwright, reporter, and poet who studied in Leuven and Cambridge and holds a doctorate from Leiden University. He has travelled extensively throughout Africa and has been actively involved in organizing literary workshops for Congolese playwrights in Kinshasa and Goma. He lives in Brussels.

Reviews for Congo

'Van Reybrouck brings this excessive history vividly to life ... He has not only read through the library he intends to replace, he has dug up new archival material and draws on living memories ... The result is a book as rich and resourceful as Congo itself.' Guardian 'This is a magnificent account, intimately researched, and relevant for anyone interested in how the recent past may inform our near future ... Extraordinary.' New York Times '[Van Reybrouck's] eye for the arresting human detail, combined with a wry appreciation for a peculiarly Congolese form of gumption, keeps you powering through this panoramic survey of 150 turbulent years ... Both intimate and immediate ... Fascinating.' Spectator


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