Pandora in the Congo

Pandora in the Congo

by Albert Sanchez Pinol (Author), Mara Faye Lethem (Translator)

Synopsis

1914. In the heart of the Congo, Garvey, a bedraggled British manservant, emerges from the jungle. He is the lone survivor of an ill-fated mining expedition in which both his masters, William and Robert Craver, have died, and all of the party's African porters have fled. Garvey carries two huge diamonds. Promptly arrested it is from his prison cell in London that Garvey recounts his horrific and thrilling ordeal. The scribe is young writer Tommy Thomson, an aspiring novelist, who has been commissioned by Garvey's lawyer to record his client's version of events. What dark forces did they meet in that ill-fated mine? How did the Craven brothers really die? What would drive men to such foul acts? And could love really blossom in the heart of such darkness? Only Tommy can unpick fact from fiction. And the course of justice, not to mention the moral values of the western world, lies in his hands. With echoes of Heart of Darkness and King Solomon's Mines, Pandora in the Congo is a fast-paced adventure story and an exploration of the transformative power of the imagination. This astounding novel also reminds you that there is always more than one version of events.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 441
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Published: 03 Apr 2008

ISBN 10: 1841958158
ISBN 13: 9781841958156

Media Reviews
Praise for Cold Skin: 'A troubling, hammering and glorious novel. -- David Mitchell
A great, creepy, tender read. -- Yann Martel
A thrillingly vivid hallucination . . . it overtook my dreams . . . Sanchez Pinol creates a struggle for survival that is, at the same time, a meditation on humanity. An island story, following a long line through Robinson Crusoe right up to The Beach. * * The Times * *
Superbly controlled and creepy. * * Independent on Sunday * *
Remarkable . . . an addictive and unsettling read. -- Alan Warner
A brilliantly suspenseful debut novel. * * Spectator * *
A literary dynamite charge, it's raucous and leaves everything shaken up. * * Independent * *
Pandora in the Congo is a wonderful book on so many levels - the story within a story of Garvey's time in Africa, as recounted by Thomson, is thrilling and compulsive... Pinol deftly weaves his theme of deception into all strands of the story... this is a cracking story on so many levels - and one of which any master of magical realism would be just as proud as a teller of tales of derring do. -- Simon Appleby * * http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/ * *
Author Bio
Albert Sanchez Pinol was born in Barcelona in 1965 and is an anthropologist and writer. Cold Skin, his first novel, has been translated into fifteen languages.