July 1998

The Catastrophist
by Ronan Bennett
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(Hardback; 14.99 IRP / 18.99 USD)

This is a novel of love and desire and thie blinding effect, set in the Congo at a turning point for Africa. Expatriates loll about their pools in a colonial paradise soon to erupt into chaos; huge crowds are drawn to the charismatic independence leader, Patrice Lumumba - and his rivals; one man sees the cracks appearing around him and struggles to hold on to his lover, his sanity, and ultimately his life.

Gillespie, the outsider, is in Leopoldville for the beautiful Italian, Iries. He is desperate for her love; she is obsessed with the unfolding drama. In a world slipping out of control, gripped by disgust, fear and incomprehension, events threaten to overwhelm him - as does his friendship with the amiable American, Stipe, with his canny driver, Auguste, and through everything Iries, always Iries.

As the mess of corruption and injustice gives way to brutality and murder, Gillespie is finally forced to confront what is happening before his eyes. In subtle, haunting prose, the author captures the complex ricochet between the personal and the political, cruelty, lust and the erotic. This is a courageous novel; it achieves a refined sensibility which leaves the reader emotionally riven.

Ronan Bennett was brought up in Belfast. He is the author of two previous novels, The Second Prison and Overthrown by Strangers. In 1993, he write Double Jeopardy, about the trial of three police officers charged with framing the Guildford Four. He has written screenplays for film and television, including the acclaimed Face, directed by Antonia Bird. His memoir, Fire and Rain, was broadcast on BBC Radio Four in 1994 and won a Sony Gold Medal