by Margaret Jull Costa (Translator), Bernardo Atxaga (Author), Bernardo Atxaga (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator)
1903, and Captain Lalande Biran, overseeing a garrison on the banks of the Congo, has an ambition: to amass a fortune and return to the literary cafes of Paris. His glamorous wife Christine has a further ambition: to own seven houses in France, a house for every year he has been abroad. At the Captain's side are an ex-legionnaire womaniser, and a servile, treacherous man who dreams of running a brothel. At their hands the jungle is transformed into a wild circus of human ambition and absurdity. But everything changes with the arrival of a new officer and brilliant marksman: the enigmatic Chrysostome Liege.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 01 Nov 2012
ISBN 10: 0099552256
ISBN 13: 9780099552253
Book Overview: Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012 - a dark tale of human ambition by the European master A.S. Byatt called 'A brilliantly inventive writer'.