Gappah, Petina "Out of Darkness, Shining Light"

Gappah, Petina "Out of Darkness, Shining Light" - 2019

Of course, we all know about David Livingstone's search for the source of the river Nile. It is also widely known that his heart was buried in Africa and his body in Europe. This is the story, told by two slaves, how the body got from the middle of Africa to the sea so that he could be transferred to Great Britain.

Two different people tell the story, a women who is employed as a cook. Her story is pretty African, she uses far too many words that the average Europen will not understand. Granted, there is a small annex with explanations but you have to use that far too often and it destroys the enjoyment of any story. Then there is a guy who wants to become a priest. He is preaching already. All the time. Almost every second sentence starts or ends with "dear Lord" or something similar. He comes across as a religious fanatic. Reading the Bible is more wordly.

Have you guessed it already? I didn't like the book.

There was only about one sentence that made me smile. When someone told the other slaves about the meeting between Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, he translated the first sentence (Dr. Livingstone, I presume?) into: "It can only be that you are Bwana Daudi."

We discussed this in our international online book club in July 2025.

Comments from the members:

• The start of the book felt slow, and didn't feel pulled into it for the story so much until the murder plot unwound. It was a really nice read though in terms or history and culture. The discussion we had resulted into talking and thinking about African history, slavery, imperialist influences, death rites... The characters in the story were also really distinct. I feel a bit smarter about African history for having read it.

• Many in the book club agreed that the language, particularly the religious tone and African dialects, made the beginning difficult to follow. However, as the story progresses, the plot becomes more engaging, especially with the focus on the African slaves who carried Livingstone’s body. Their journey is central to the book, and the contrast between their lives and Livingstone’s European legacy opens up important discussions about colonialism and the erasure of African voices in history. Some felt the religious elements were repetitive, but they were seen as integral to understanding the mindset of the time. Despite the slow start and challenging style, many found the novel’s exploration of historical and cultural themes thought-provoking.

• Overall it was a really good discussion book, because we have read some books about African history and by African authors before, it always becomes an interesting part, looking at the books we have read, and how the new books align in with those. In that sense this felt like quite a good book to add to the list.

From the back cover:

"This is the story of the body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, the explorer David Livingstone - and the sixty-nine men and women who carried his remains for 1,500 miles so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own country.

This is the story of those in the shadows of history: the  dark companions who saved a white man's bones on an epic funeral march - little knowing his corps carried the maps that sowed the seeds of their continent's colonisation and enslavement.

This is the story of how human bravery, loyalty and love can triumph over darkness - and the result is Petina Gappah's radical masterpiece."

Lessing, Doris "The Grass is Singing"

Lessing, Doris "The Grass is Singing" - 1950

This was our international online book club book for February 2024.

Doris Lessing's first novel. It received a lot of praise and she was an author of whom much was excepted. She fulfilled it all, her Nobel Prize is a great testimony.

The story takes place in Zimbabwe when it was still called Rhodesia. I guess it could have been any other colony where the white rulers made the black natives their subservients. As we all know, that didn't last forever, it couldn't last forever.

We can see the trouble by looking at some settlers and their problems. Not only did they not know the land and its very own specifics, they were not meant for a climate and a country like this. It had to lead to disaster, one way or another.

Doris Lessing describes the problems very well by looking at Mary, married to a poor farmer, unhappy with her life, not knowing how to improve it. You can tell that she lived in the country herself.

Comments by other members:
• We had a really good discussion about this book and it was scored 4/5 or 5/5 by all.
• The writing was excellent in making one see and feel the location and climate. We discussed many topics: the main characters, their psychology and motivations, the time and history and societal pressure for marriage and being the "right kind of white" and pressure to conform to the status quo. Gender roles. Mental health. The different ways of farming the land in the story. The slow gradual changes from outright slavery but not yet really an equal society. And obviously the obsessive and very inappropriate thoughts and behaviour that led to the gruesome end.
• I probably forget a lot of aspects, but very interesting.
• I again feel older and wiser for having read this book. I might even add some other of her works to my TBR pile.

Read also the excellent review of another book club member here.

I have read "The Golden Notebook" years ago. It was a completely different book but just as great. I think I should read more by this remarkable author.

Book Description:

"Set in South Africa under white rule, Doris Lessing's first novel is both a riveting chronicle of human disintegration and a beautifully understated social critique. Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm work their slow poison, and Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of an enigmatic and virile black servant, Moses. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses - master and slave - are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion. Their psychic tension explodes in an electrifying scene that ends this disturbing tale of racial strife in colonial South Africa.

'The Grass Is Singing' blends Lessing's imaginative vision with her own vividly remembered early childhood to recreate the quiet horror of a woman's struggle against a ruthless fate."

Doris Lessing "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Dangarembga, Tsitsi "Nervous Conditions"

Dangarembga, Tsitsi "Nervous Conditions" - 1988

The first line "I was not sorry when my brother died" should be included in the best first lines list.

This story gives us a glimpse into the life of 13-year-old Tambudzei, a girl from Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, in the 1960s. One rarely reads books by African women. The author was born in 1945 and can report on the traditional structures in which only men count. The novel is semi-autobiographical. The protagonist is clever and wishes to use her intelligence elsewhere than in the kitchen and in the nursery. Her cousin, who spent part of her childhood in England, further contributes to Tambu's hunger for education.

A fantastic book that describes the situation of women in almost every society. Yes, here too, unfortunately, there is still a difference whether you are born a man or a woman and in a rich or poor household.

I definitely want to read the other two books in this trilogy: The Book of Not and This Mournable Body.

From the back cover:

"Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu's journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging."

"…the story I have told here is my own story, the story of four women I have loved and the story of our husbands; it is the story of how it all began." Tsitsi Dangarembga

"This novel is an excellent portrayal and interpretation of an African society whose younger generation of women is struggling, with varying degrees of success (to the point of near defeat), to free society from being dominated by patriarchy and colonialism. There has never been a convincing account of anorexia in African literature." Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Literatur aus Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika e.V. (Society for the Promotion of Literature from Africa, Asia and Latin America e.V.)

The German translation is by Ilja Trojanow, a really good author, so it should be a good one.

"Nervous Conditions" was named one of the 100 best books that shaped the world by the BBC in 2021.

The book received the 1989 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first work for the African region.

Tsitsi Dangarembga received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2021.
The jury's explanation read: "In her trilogy of novels, Tsitsi Dangarembga uses the example of an adolescent woman to describe the struggle for the right to a decent life and female self-determination in Zimbabwe. In doing so, she shows social and moral conflicts that go far beyond the regional context go out and open up resonance spaces for global questions of justice. In her films, she addresses problems that arise from the clash of tradition and modernity. Her messages are successfully aimed at a broad audience both in Zimbabwe and in neighboring countries."

Another African writer whose books I read and can happily recommend is:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Half of a Yellow Sun" - Die Hälfte der Sonne - 2006
"Americanah" - Americanah - 2013
"We Should All Be Feminists" (Mehr Feminismus! Ein Manifest und vier Stories) - 2014

Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart"

Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart" (The African Trilogy #1) - 1958

A story about Nigeria just after the arrival of the first European colonists in the late nineteenth century.

I haven't read many African novels but this is by far the best one to portray African culture and what Europeans have done to them through their colonies. Okonkwo and his village live a perfectly good life with their tribes, tradition, religion, work and family life. And then the European missionaries arrive and tell them that everything they've done so far is wrong and force them into changes that none of them really wants.

What would we think if someone from another continent came and told us that our religion is wrong, the way we live is wrong, the way we work is wrong, that we are a failure altogether? They alienate our children, our partners, question our education system, the way we build our houses, organize our society.

We must not like Okonkwo in order to understand that colonialism was just wrong. This is no way to help another nation, another culture, it's just a way to destroy it and the lives of those that live it.

A great book that I would recommend to everyone who is interested in other cultures, even or especially if they don't exist like this anymore.

This is the first story of the author's "African Trilogy". "No longer at Ease" and "Arrow of God" are the follow-up novels.

From the back cover:

"Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a 'strong man' of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.

These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul."

Chinua Achebe received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2002.

Chinua Achebe received the Booker International Prize in 2007 because he "illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies".

Spufford, Francis "Golden Hill"

Spufford, Francis "Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York" - 2016

I saw this book first in a German bookstore as a translation. I liked the title. "Neu-York", literally New York in German. The pictures looked more Dutch to me, no wonder, since the main settlers at the time of the novel came from the Netherlands.

Anyway, I was getting curious, so I decided to get the original and read it.

An interesting story. Manhattan in the 18th century. Manhattan in a Dutch style. A young man comes from the Netherlands to claim a high amount of money for a project he is not going to tell anyone anything about. He has to go through a lot of trials and tribulations before he can finally reveal the plan. And it's a good one!

The novel is full of surprises, the writing style is interesting, the setting also. It's an easy but certainly not a boring read. A nice historical novel. humorous as well as informative.

From the back cover:

"New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746.

One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat pitches up at a counting-house door in Golden Hill Street: this is Mr Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion simmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge amount, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he can be planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money.

Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him?

As fast as a heist movie, as stuffed with incident as a whole shelf of conventional fiction, Golden Hill is both a novel about the 18th century, and itself a book cranked back to the novel's 18th century beginnings, when anything could happen on the page, and usually did, and a hero was not a hero unless he ran the frequent risk of being hanged.

This is Fielding's Tom Jones recast on Broadway - when Broadway was a tree-lined avenue two hundreds yards long, with a fort at one end flying the Union Jack and a common at the other, grazed by cows.

Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill has a plot that twists every chapter, and a puzzle at its heart that won't let go till the last paragraph of the last page.

Set a generation before the American Revolution, it paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later self: but subtly shadowed by the great city to come, and already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love - and find a world of trouble."

McKinley, Tamara "Lands Beyond the Sea"

McKinley, Tamara "Lands Beyond the Sea" - 2007

I would file this novel under "Catherine Cookson with a little Australiana thrown in". Too much "Lord loves poor girl, poor girl loves Lord but they can't get together" for me. The stories of the convicts have been described a lot better in other books (Capricornia, English Passengers, The Floating Brothel, For the Term of His Natural Life, The Secret River).

The story about the convicts might have been good if it hadn't all the chick lit paraphernalia thrown in. And I might have enjoyed the book if it hadn't been such an "easy read". Not my thing, I'm afraid.

I read this is the first of a series. I doubt I will read the following ones.

From the back cover:

"Discovery
By the 1700s, the Aborigine people have lived in harmony with the land in Australia for sixty thousand years. But now, ghost-ships are arriving, their very existence is threatened by a terrifying white invasion.

Love
When Jonathan Cadwallader leaves Cornwall to sail on the Endeavour, he leaves behind his sweetheart, Susan Penhalligan ... But an act of brutality will reunite them in the raw and unforgiving penal colony of New South Wales.

Hardship
Billy Penhalligan has survived transportation and clings to the promise of a new beginning. But there will be more suffering before he or his fellow convicts can regard Australia as home ...

A powerful, romantic epic weaving the lives of the Cadwalladers, the Penhalliagnas, the Aborigine and the convict settlers into the untamed tapestry of newly discovered Australia."

Herbert, Xavier "Capricornia"

Herbert, Xavier "Capricornia"  - 1938

This book was suggested to me by my Australian friends as a classic from their country. It was a tough read of sorts but not disappointing. In this novel, the author tells us of life in Australia's north at the beginning of the 20th century. The life of the white settlers as well as the Aborigines who had lived on this continent for whoever knows how long, the new life created by the two, the "half-breeds" called "yeller fellers", the "quadroons" and the problems that arise by them mixing together. I have never understood how you can believe one race to be better than another but to divide those that have both races in them into different kind of people again ... if you have an Asian parent in between your "white" and "black" ones, you are better than those that have more "black" but still worse than those with more "white" etc. Seems unbelievable and I don't even want to understand it.

A great view of a continent that I don't even know today, even less so a hundred years ago. I have a few friends in Australia and my son just spent six months there, but that doesn't teach me much about their history. However, this did. An informative story, a captivating story, a touching story.

It must have been quite a shocking book when it was published in 1938, so close still to the events, I guess a lot of people still thought that way. The author was even declared "Protect of Aborigines", I think that says it all.

A lot of the books I read about Australia covered more the convicts that were forced to immigrate to Australia, this is later and therefore tells the continuation of that tale.

Oh, and I also loved the names of the characters, almost like Charles Dickens, a lot of them are named after their occupation or some flaw in their character. The undertaker is called Joe Crowe, Mr. Bigtit is an important lawyer, O'Crimnell and O'Theef are police troopers etc. Quite funny. Which shows that the novel is also full of humour.

Good read. If you are interested in Australia, you should definitely try it. Apparently, it inspired Baz Luhrman to make his film "Australia" which I also highly recommend, although the background to the story is completely different. And placed a little later in history.

From the back cover:
"A saga of life in the Northern Territories and the clash of white and Aborigine cultures – one of Australia’s all-time best-selling novels and an inspiration for Baz Luhrmann’s lavish film 'AUSTRALIA'.
Capricornia has been described as one of Australia's 'great novels', a sharply observed chronicle about life in the Northern Territory of Australia and the inhumane treatment suffered by Aborigines at the hands of white men. The story is immense and rambling, laced with humour that is often as bitter and as harsh as the terrain in which it is set, and follows with irony the fortunes (and otherwise) of a range of Outback characters over a span of generations. Through their story is reflected the story of Australia, the clash of personalities and cultures that provide the substance on which today's society is founded. Above all, however, this is a novel of protest and of compassion - for the Aborigines and half-bloods of Australia's 'last frontier'.
Sprawling, explosive, thronged with characters, plots and sub-plots, Capricornia is without doubt one of the best known and widely read Australian novels of the last 70 years. When it was first published it was acclaimed as 'a turning point', an 'outstanding work of social protest'. Its message is as penetrating today as it was in the 1930s when Herbert himself was official 'Protector of Aborigines' at Darwin."

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun"

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun" - 2006

I remember the time when we were teenagers and I was a member of a youth group at church. We bought oranges, wrote "Biafra" on them and sold them after mass. We wanted to help all those poor children that were dying of hunger in Biafra.

I don't think many of us knew where Biafra was. After all, it was a new country. We learned the African countries at school but Biafra hadn't been among them.

And even though I am sure many others have collected money for Biafra, I totally can relate to the quote "The world was silent when we died." Yes, we were silent, we are still silent. Many of us don't know what happened and I am so content that I read this story and learned a little bit more about a part of this continent that still has to overcome so many problems thrown at them by us Europeans. Biafra is just one of the areas, I can think of many others, Rwanda, for example.

This book has been on my TBR pile for a while. Why? I think the only reason is that my TBR pile is too large. The book is marvelous. The story just throws you right into the lives of Ugwu, Olanna and Odenigbo, Kainene and Richard. You are in the middle of their struggles, their problems, their will to survive. What a fantastic story. You want to finish it within a day but you also don't ever want to finish it because you are afraid of what is coming at the end. You get to know not only the characters but the whole situation, you get to know the country and the history. Just brilliant.

The title of this novel represents the flag of Biafra, a flag I had never seen, therefore the title didn't tell me anything at all. But if you know the flag, all becomes clear. Look it up.

I will surely read more by this wonderful author.

From the back cover:
"In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna`s enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined ..."

The author lists a lot of books that she used for research. I think all of them would be worth reading, as well, though I doubt I will ever manage to finish them all.

Achebe, Chinua "Girls at War and Other Stories"
Amadi, Elechi "Sunset in Biafra"
Brandler, J.L. "Out of Nigeria"
Collis, Robert "Nigeria in Conflict"
De St. Jorre, John "The Nigerian Civil War"
Ekwe-Ekwe, Herbert "The Biafran War: Nigeria and the Aftermath"
Ekwensi, Cyprian "Divided We Stand"
Emecheta, Buchi "Destination Biafra"
Enekwe, Ossie "Come Thunder"
Forsyth, Frederick "Biafra Story"
Gold, Herbert "Biafra Goodbye"
Ike, Chukwuemeka "Sunset at Dawan"
Iroh, Eddie "The Siren at Night"
Jacobs, Dan "The Brutality of Nations"
Kanu, Anthonia "Broken Lives and Other Stories"
Madiebo, Alex "The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War"
Mok, Micheal "Biafra Journal
Niven, Rex "The War of Nigerian Unity"
Njoku, Hilary "A Tragedy Without Heroes"
Nwankwo, Arthur Agwuncha "The Making of a Nation"
Nwapa, Flora "Never Again"
Nwapa, Flora "Wives at War"
Odogwu, Bernard "No Place to Hide: Crises and Conflicts Inside Biafra"
Okigbo, Christopher "Labyrinths"
Okonta, Ike and Douglas, Oronta "Where Vultures Feed"
Okpaku, Joseph "Nigeria: Dilemma of Nationhood"
Okpi, Kalu "Biafra Testament"
Soyinka, Wole "The Man Died"
Stremlau, John J. "The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War"
Uwechue, Ralph "Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War"
Uzokwe, Alfred Obiora "Surviving in Biafra"

There are more books mentioned at the end by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other African writers that are worth reading:

Achebe, Chinua "Arrow of God"
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Purple Hibiscus"
Chinodya, Shimmer "Harvest of Thorns"
Oguibe, Olu "Lessons from the Killing Fields"
Wainana, Binyavanga "How To Write About Africa"

She also mentions this book several times in the novel:
Douglass, Frederick "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"

Joinson, Suzanne "The Photographer's Wife"

Joinson, Suzanne "The Photographer's Wife" - 2016

I stumbled upon this book in a bookshop and liked the title and the cover. My husband is a huge hobby photographer and so, I am "The Photographer's Wife". The cover shows the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The story takes place in a country that I always like to read about, Israel, or Palestine back in the time the story starts. I just had to read it.

I just read another book ("The Night Watch") that was moving back in time and I've read others where the story hopped back and forth. I usually don't mind it but in both these cases, it was weird, almost as if they want you to live with a suspense until the end of the book, make it more interesting. However, it wasn't more interesting, I found it got more boring this way.

I would have thought, this story contributes more to understand what was going on in this country before the second world war, after all, that's what it says on the back cover. And it does. Prue, the protagonist of the story, is only eleven years old in 1920 and her father, a British architect, wants to redesign Jerusalem. She is caught up between the British and Germans and the local inhabitants and gets used by both sides.

As I say, the book didn't fascinate me much. The story seemed bland despite a lot of things going on. I heard Suzanne Joinson's book "A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar" was a national bestseller and that she received many awards for her writings but I doubt I will pick up one of her books anytime soon.

From the back cover: "Jerusalem, 1920: in an already fractured city, eleven-year-old Prudence feels the tension rising as her architect father launches a wildly eccentric plan to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert. From beneath tearoom tables, she eavesdrops on  the city's elite, as British colonials, exiled Armenians and German officials line up the pieces in a political game: a game destined to end in disaster.
When Prue's father employs a British pilot, William Harrington, to take aerial photographs of the city, Prue is uncomfortably aware of the attraction that sparks between him and Eleanora, the English wife of a famous Jerusalem photographer - a nationalist intent on removing the British.
Years later, in 1937, Prue is an artist living by the sea with her young son when Harrington pays her a surprise visit. What he reveals unravels her world, and she must follow the threads back to secrets long-ago buried in Jerusalem. Set in the complex period between the world wars, The Photographer's Wife is a powerful story of betrayal: between father and daughter, between husband and wife, and between nations and people."

Landers, Brian "Empires Apart"

Landers, Brian "Empires Apart. A History of American and Russian Imperialism" - 2010

This was a great recommended from a good friend of mine. It summarizes almost all of Europe's history as well as the North American one, compares both "empires" in chronological order and gives a great overview over today's' troubles, as well. There is so much information with so many details in this book, it's amazing how the author managed to put it all on under 600 pages.

It is interesting to see the similarities in the two great super powers of the cold war as well as the differences, the approach to expanding their territory and their influence on anything in the world.

The work is written in quite an easy manner, so even if you are not used to historical works, you should get through this with no problems. I am sure there are people who dislike the book because it doesn't just emphasize on the difficulties and problems caused by the Russians but also those the USA is responsible for but I believe it is quite an impartial view and therefore worth a read. Thought-provoking.

From the back cover: "The American road to empire started when the first English settlers landed in Virginia. Simultaneously, the first Russians crossed the Urals and the two empires that would dominate the twentieth century were born. Empires Apart covers the history of the Americans and Russians from the Vikings to the present day. It shows the two empires developed in parallel as they expanded to the Pacific and launched wars against the nations around them. They both developed an imperial 'ideology' that was central to the way they perceived themselves.
Soon after, the ideology of the Russian Empire also changed with the advent of Communism. The key argument of this book is that these changes did not alter the core imperial values of either nation; both Russians and Americans continued to believe in their manifest destiny. Corporatist and Communist imperialism changed only the mechanics of empire. Both nations have shown that they are still willing to use military force and clandestine intrigue to enforce imperial control. Uniquely, Landers shows how the broad sweep of American history follows a consistent path from the first settlers to the present day and, by comparing this with Russia's imperial path, demonstrates the true nature of American global ambitions."

Here are a few quotes I liked for one reason or another:
"He [Constantinus VII] is said to have proposed marriage to her [Olga, Svytalov's mother]; clearly it was a truth then [950] universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a large fortune must be in search of a husband." (page 24)
This link to my favourite author, a sentence everyone who likes classic books will know, shows how little times have changed.

"History is not what is taught in the classroom or buried in academic journals. History is the random collection of pictures and phrases, stories and prejudices that accretes drop by drop in the mind." (page 295)
I think that is one of the reasons we should read as many different kind of books from different authors with very different background. In order to learn from the history.

"... much of the twentieth century can be characterised as a Tale of Two Empires ..." (page 512)
Yes, indeed. The question is, is that a good thing or not? I think we should always have more than one superpower in order not to be overrun by the one and only but having two alone is not that great, either, because one will always try to overcome the other. And in the end, the "little man" pays, as always.

Lalami, Laila "The Moors' Account"

Lalami, Laila "The Moors' Account" - 2014

What a fantastic way of retelling history. "The Moors' Account" tells us a story that has been told before - but by Spanish people, white people who came as conquerors to the new continent to be called America. This is told by one of their slaves, a guy from Morocco, who survives a lot of ordeals because of his determination to get back home again. Out of the 600 people who went on an expedition in 1527, only four survive and Mustafa, who was renamed Estebanico by the Spaniards, was one of them.

We don't just learn about the expedition and how life in America was before the Europeans arrived, we also learn about life in Morocco at the time.

Totally interesting story, told in alternating chapters, switching from Morocco to American and back. I also loved that we hear the history from another side.

It's interesting to learn that we only have one line about Mustafa in an account of one of the three others (Cabeza de Vaca): "The fourth [survivor] is Estevanico, an Arab Negro from Azamor." It's amazing, how Laila Lalami fashioned such a great story from it.

"The Moor's Account" was on both the Pulitzer Prize and Booker Prize longlist. Totally deserved it. I'm looking forward to more books by this author.

From the back cover: "In 1527 the Spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez arrived on the coast of modern-day Florida with hundreds of settlers, and claimed the region for Spain. Almost immediately, the expedition was decimated by a combination of navigational errors, disease, starvation and fierce resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year, only four survivors remained: three noblemen and a Moroccan slave called “Estebanico”.

The official record, set down after a reunion with Spanish forces in 1536, contains only the three freemen’s accounts. The fourth, to which the title of Laila Lalami’s masterful novel alludes, is Estebanico’s own.

Lalami gives us Estebanico as history never did: as Mustafa, the vibrant merchant from Azemmur forced into slavery and a new name, and reborn as the first black explorer of the Americas, discovering and being discovered by various tribes both hostile and compassionate.

In Estebanico’s telling, the survivors’ journey across great swathes of the New World transforms would-be conquerors into humble servants and fearful outcasts into faith healers. He remains ever-observant, resourceful and hopeful that he might one day find his way back to his family, even as he experiences an unexpected (if ambiguous) camaraderie with his masters.

The Moor’s Account illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, and how storytelling can offer a chance for redemption, reinvention and survival."

 

Laila Lalami was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for "The Moors Account" in 2014.

Ghosh, Amitav "Flood of Fire"

Ghosh, Amitav "Flood of Fire" (Ibis Trilogy #3) - 2015

After reading "Sea of Poppies" two years ago, I was happy that the second book "River of Smoke" had already been published and I could just carry on reading. Then I was so disappointed to find that the third book had not even been written, yet.

Well, it was worth the wait. I probably should have reread the first two first and then carried on with the last one but I just couldn't wait. Characters, scenes, events did come back but I would have liked a little more reintroduction in some cases. I was also happy to see what happened to some of the characters from "Sea of Poppies" that were hardly or not at all mentioned in "River of Smoke" so that it all came back together again. I was not happy to learn that the author abandoned the thought of carrying on further with the story as he had intended after the second book. What a shame. I do hope he will write more, though, because I do love his style which I already admired in "The Glass Palace".

Just  a fantastic read. Mesmerizing, captivating. So much more history of a part of the world I don't know much about. I don't think we went into much detail in our lessons about the opium war because I certainly didn't remember that but I know a lot about it today.

If you are really interested in the history of this part of the world or if you just would like to read a good adventure story or like a captivating tale about a lot of people, this trilogy is for you. Enjoy.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"It is 1839 and tension has been rapidly mounting between China and British India following the crackdown on opium smuggling by Beijing. With no resolution in sight, the colonial government declares war.

One of the vessels requisitioned for the attack, the Hind, travels eastwards from Bengal to China, sailing into the midst of the First Opium War. The turbulent voyage brings together a diverse group of travellers, each with their own agenda to pursue. Among them is Kesri Singh, a sepoy in the East India Company who leads a company of Indian sepoys; Zachary Reid, an impoverished young sailor searching for his lost love, and Shireen Modi, a determined widow en route to China to reclaim her opium-trader husband's wealth and reputation. Flood of Fire follows a varied cast of characters from India to China, through the outbreak of the First Opium War and China's devastating defeat, to Britain's seizure of Hong Kong."

This is also a book about books. Quite a few are mentioned, either because the characters are reading them or because they quote from them.

Defoe, Daniel "Robinson Crusoe"
Goldsmith, Oliver "The Vicar of Wakefield"
Haywood, Eliza "Love in Excess"
Richardson, Samuel "Pamela"
Sterne, Laurence "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman"
Voltaire "Zadig"

You can find my reviews of other Amitav Ghosh novels here.

Multatuli "Max Havelaar"

Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) "Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company" (Dutch: Max Havelaar of de koffiveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappy) - 1859

Eduard Douwes Dekker aka Multatuli should probably be called the Dutch Charles Dickens. At least, he's from the same era and is just as popular in the Netherlands as Dickens is in the United Kingdom.

His book seemed to have opened the eyes of many Dutch people at the time as to what colonialism really meant. "Max Havelaar" is also called "the book that killed colonialism" and was chosen as the most important book in Dutch literature in 2002.

There are other lists around in the meantime where it is still number three, following "The Discovery of Heaven" by Harry Mulisch and "The House of the Mosque" by Kader Abdolah, two very influential and important works I highly recommend.

The book is translated (not just) into English but I read it in the original Dutch. In any case, I think it still has a message for us today, it is as important now as it was then. It's subtitle "Or the Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company," does not really say a lot more about the book than just the plain title because it is a lot more about the life in Indonesia both for the local people as well as the colonialists back then than about the trading itself. It is a work about the oppression of Europeans over other nations, you can compare it to what we have done in Africa or even to slavery. The natives had no rights whatsoever and only worked to keep their own lives so they could create more money for their "masters". All sounds very familiar.

The author got his contemporaries thinking about what colonialism really meant. And he still has a voice today. Well done. Definitely a book worth picking up.

From the back cover:

"When Max Havelaar was first published in Holland in 1860, it ignited a major political and social brouhaha. The novel, written by a former official of the Dutch East Indian Civil Service under the pen name Multatuli, exposed the massive corruption and cruelty rife in the Dutch colony of Java. Max Havelaar is an undeniably autobiographical novel; like his hero, Multatuli--the pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker--was an Assistant Resident of Lebak in Java; like Havelaar in the novel, he resigned his position when his accusations of corruption and abuse were disregarded by higher authorities, resulting in years of poverty for both author and fictional hero. Max Havelaar is told from several different perspectives; the reader first meets an Amsterdam coffee dealer named Droogstoppel, a man so obsessed with coffee that his every thought and action is governed by it. Droogstoppel has come by a manuscript from an old schoolmate who, down on his luck, has asked him to get it published. The schoolmate is Havelaar, and the manuscript relates his experiences as an idealistic and generous young civil servant who tries to protect the poor and bring justice to the powerless.

The central part of the novel details conditions in Java, particularly Havelaar's efforts to correct injustices in the face of a corrupt government system. That his efforts will prove futile soon becomes apparent, and there is something almost Greek in the inevitability of Havelaar's declining fortunes. Despite its tragic themes, Max Havelaar is savagely funny, particularly the chapters narrated by Droogstoppel, a character unmatched for his veniality, narrow-mindedness, or singular lack of understanding or imagination. Though Multatuli's masterpiece is nearly 150 years old, it wears its age well, and Roy Edwards's excellent translation offers English-speaking readers a wonderful opportunity to experience one of the Netherlands's great literary classics."

Mankell, Henning "Daniel"

Mankell, Henning "Daniel" (Swedish: Vindens son) - 2000

A non-crime fiction novel by a crime author, well, an almost non-crime novel. But one that doesn't focus on the crime.

This is the story about the South African boy Molo who lives in the late 19th century. When his parents get killed (by white people, of course), a Swedish biologist gives him the name Daniel, takes him back home and tries to "adopt" him which in his case means he takes him to exhibitions and lets other scientists measure him, draw him, use him for their curiosity.

The boy is completely homesick. Nobody really cares for him and he tries to get back home.

Not a bad story but I expected it to be more about Africa than Europe. However, the story captures you, the boy is described in a way that you cannot neglect his wishes. It is easy to understand why he doesn't feel at home in this cold country where everything is forbidden that used to be normal in his old life. A dark story, but seeing how people in 19th century Sweden lived was quite interesting, as well. Let's hope that we all evolved from that.

The various translators didn't seem to agree on the title, as happens very often. While the French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Finnish versions keep the original title (Son of the Wind), the Portuguese call it simply "The Antelopes" and the Germans and Russians choose "The Red Antelope", the English selected the title "Daniel".

From the back cover:

"In 1878, aspiring entomologist Hans Bengler travels to the Kalahari Desert in hopes of making a name for himself by discovering a previously unknown insect or two. There he encounters a boy named Molo, an orphan whose family has been killed by European colonists. Bengler 'civilizes' the boy by rechristening him Daniel, teaching him to pray to the Christian god, and finally bringing him home to Sweden. The boy is bewildered and awed by the new land, cut off from his culture and the spirits of his family, and Bengler finds that raising a child across a great cultural divide is more difficult than he imagined. A psychological drama of one boy’s struggle to find his place in a new land far from home, Daniel is a compelling novel for our modern globalized world."

Pope Osborne, Mary "Magic Tree House" Series

Pope Osborne, Mary "Magic Tree House" Series - 1992 ff.

Jack and Anne are two ordinary children who just have to enter their tree house and, with the help of magical books, can travel back in time. In the various books they learn everything about history but also a lot about science. A very interesting way of teaching children all sorts of important subjects.

My sons really enjoyed these books.

These are all the books that exist (UK titles in brackets, when different).
[Research Guides in brackets]

Book 1: Dinosaurs Before Dark (Valley of the Dinosaurs) [RG1: Dinosaurs]
Book 2: The Knight at Dawn (Castle of Mystery) [RG2: Knights and Castles]
Book 3: Mummies in the Morning (Secret of the Pyramid) [RG3: Mummies and Pyramids]
Book 4: Pirates Past Noon (Pirates' Treasure) [RG4: Pirates]
Book 5: Night of the Ninjas
Book 6: Afternoon on the Amazon (Adventure on the Amazon) [RG5: Rain Forests]
Book 7: Sunset of the Sabertooth (Mammoth to the Rescue) [RG12: Sabertooths and the Ice Age]
Book 8: Midnight on the Moon (Moon Mission) [RG6: Space]
Book 9: Dolphins at Daybreak (Diving with Dolphins) [RG9: Dolphins and Sharks]
Book 10: Ghost Town at Sundown (A Wild West Ride)
Book 11: Lions at Lunchtime (Lions on the Loose)
Book 12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime Icy Escape) [RG 16: Polar Bears and the Arctic]
Book 13: Vacation Under the Volcano (Racing with Gladiators) [RG14: Ancient Rome and Pompeii]
Book 14: Day of the Dragon King (Palace of the Dragon King)
Book 15: Viking Ships at Sunrise (Voyage of the Vikings)
Book 16: Hour of the Olympics (Olympic Challenge!) [RG10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics]
Book 17: Tonight on the Titanic [RG7: Titanic]
Book 18: Buffalo Before Breakfast
Book 19: Tigers at Twilight
Book 20: Dingoes at Dinnertime
Book 21: Civil War on Sunday
Book 22: Revolutionary War on Wednesday [RG11: American Revolution]
Book 23: Twister on Tuesday [RG8: Twisters and Other Terrible Storms]
Book 24: Earthquake In the Early Morning
Book 25: Stage Fright on a Summer Night
Book 26: Good Morning, Gorillas
Book 27: Thanksgiving on Thursday [RG13: Pilgrims]
Book 28: High Tide in Hawaii [RG15: Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters]
Book 29: Christmas in Camelot
Book 30: Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve
Book 31: Summer of the Sea Serpent
Book 32: Winter of the Ice Wizard
Book 33: Carnival at Candlelight
Book 34: Season of the Sandstorms

Book 35: Night of the New Magicians
Book 36: Blizzard of the Blue Moon
Book 37: Dragon of the Red Dawn
Book 38: Monday with a Mad Genius [RG19: Leonardo da Vinci]
Book 39: Dark Day in the Deep Sea [RG17: Sea Monsters]
Book 40: Eve of the Emperor Penguin [RG18: Penguins and Antarctica]
Book 41: Moonlight on the Magic Flute
Book 42: A Good Night for Ghosts [RG20: Ghosts]
Book 43: Leprechaun in Late Winter [RG21: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore]
Book 44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time [RG22: Rags and Riches: Kids in the Time of Charles Dickens]
Book 45: A Crazy Day with Cobras [RG23: Snakes and Other Reptiles]
Book 46: Dogs in the Dead of Night [RG24: Dog Heroes]
Book 47: Abe Lincoln at Last! [RG25: Abraham Lincoln]
Book 48: A Perfect Time for Pandas [RG26: Pandas and Other Endangered Species]
Book 49: Stallion by Starlight [RG27: Horse Heroes]
Book 50: Hurry Up, Houdini! [RG 28: Magic Tricks from the Tree House #28]

Ghosh, Amitav "River of Smoke"

Ghosh, Amitav "River of Smoke" (Ibis Trilogy #2) - 2011

This novel is Part 2 of the "Ibis Trilogy". I was happy that it had been written already when I finished "Sea of Poppies" because it meant I could carry on with the story right away.

Seldom have I been so eager to start the next book in a series as with this one. That might be partly because the first book didn't seem to have a proper ending and just invited you to carry on with this one but it certainly is also due to the fantastic talent of this author of telling you a story.

As I have written in my review about "Sea of Poppies", Amitav Ghosh manages to describe everything in a way that you feel you are there. He is such a realistic writer, it is unbelievable. It feels like you have time travelled and are in India or China in the 19th century.

If, like me, you have read the first book in the series, you could not wait to see what happened to the characters of that story. And you won't be disappointed. However, while he introduces other people that did not appear in the first book, it takes him quite a while to come to terms with the fate of some of our heroes from the Ibis. If you are very impatient, you might get just a little annoyed with the storyteller.

A lot of new topics are introduced into this part, even though they have been slightly touched in the first novel. One of them is morale and the difference between Hinduism and Christianity.

I don't want to repeat everything I said about the first episode of the story, so I just refer you to my review of "Sea of Poppies". I also read the third one in the series now: "Flood of Fire".

Apparently, the author said in an interview, “I don't know whether I'll be able to stop at three". Well, I'd love him to write more than three of these but I'd really like him to hurry up with the next one.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"In September 1838 the fortunes of all those aboard three ships on the Indian Ocean - the 'Ibis', the 'Anahita' and the 'Redruth' - are upended in tempestuous seas. On the grand scale of an historical epic, 'River of Smoke' follows the motley collection of storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbours of China. All struggle to cope with their losses - and for some, unimaginable freedoms - in the alleys and crowded waterways of nineteenth-century Canton. As transporting and mesmerizing as an opiate-induced dream, 'River of Smoke' will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first-century literature."

There is a good website about "The Ibis Trilogy".

Ghosh, Amitav "Sea of Poppies"

Ghosh, Amitav "Sea of Poppies" (Ibis Trilogy #1) - 2008

This novel is Part 1 of the "Ibis Trilogy".

I have only read "The Glass Palace" by this author so far. It was a book club read and it is one of my favourite books ever. I don't want to say too much in the first line but this novel will join it on my shelf of favourites.

This book has it all, history, love and war, the people from different countries. Amitav Ghosh manages to invite us into this world. I love it when you have the feeling that you are there. You can see the colours, hear he sounds, smell the smells, it's so lifelike.

This novel describes the fate of a ship and its passengers, At the beginning, we get to know the sailors, then the different people who will become passengers later on, all from different kinds of life.

Amitav Ghosh manages to describe all classes of people so well, the different castes in India, the British and other foreigners, all neatly put into their respective drawers. The women belong in yet another part, they have nothing to say, they get married off to someone, have to produce the heir. Everyone is forced into a certain role due to social and political reasons. And yet, everyone tries to live with their fate in their one different way, some are subservient, others rebellious. Some form an attachment to people from the other groups, others desperately try to keep that invisible wall between them.

In any case, this book teaches so much about life in India at that time, about the Opium War. We learn about the fate of the farmers who are forced by the colonialists to produce opium which they, in turn, import into China so they can afford the trading with that country. So many lives are affected and destroyed because some Europeans want Chinese products. It also is a lot easier for the occupiers to destroy the lives of anyone who originally lived in the country than the other way around. We see that one wrong accusation can take away one man's wealth and honour.

I would have liked to have some sort of ending to this part of the book but because I started it late, "River of Smoke" was already out and I carried on with it right away.

I also read the third one in the series now: "Flood of Fire".

In an interview the author mentioned that "oil is the opium of today." I think he is absolutely right and it might help to think about what we are doing to people in the other parts of the world today.

I guess some people might have a problem reading this as there are a lot of different versions of English used, that of the sailors is different of that of the Indians, that of the British different than that of the other foreigners, there are many different dialects and idiosyncrasies. It seems irritating at the beginning but I can only encourage everyone to keep on going, it's definitely worth it. We also learn that a lot of words have come to the English language from the colonies this way. An interesting observation, if you like language.

This story is like "One Thousand and One Nights", so many different stories, so many different lives. And all in a country far far away and a long time ago. Fascinating. Enchanting.

I read this book as part of the Reading Challenge "Chunky Books". I love that group and am looking forward to reading and discussing a lot more tomes with this group.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"On an old slaving ship named the 'Ibis', fate has thrown together a truly motley crew of sailors, coolies, and convicts, including a bankrupt raja, a French runaway and a widowed opium farmer. As their old family ties are washed away, they, they come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. Against the backdrop of the Opium Wars, this unlikely dynasty is what makes 'Sea of Poppies' so breathtakingly alive - a masterpiece from one of the world's finest novelists."

There is a good website about "The Ibis Trilogy" and "Sea of Poppies".

Amitav Ghosh was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "Sea of Poppies" in 2008.

Lamb, Christina "The Africa House"

Lamb, Christina "The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream" - 1999

This was the first book I read by Christina Lamb. I have since read "The Sewing Circles of Herat" and have become a big fan of her.

This biography is about Sir Stewart Gore-Brown, someone I had never heard about in my life. And still, his life is interesting and the book was captivating. The protagonist was one of the last colonialists. He owned a big house in Africa, almost a castle, something he couldn't have afforded back in his home country, Britain.

Being one of the last to start such an enterprise, he certainly belonged to the more arrogant and naive types, someone who wanted to turn back time and be one of the landholders, the lords, the people who owned people.

Christina Lamb has a great feeling for other people and she manages to describe their lives in a way that you imagine you've been there. I will certainly read more books of this talented author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"In the last decades of the British Empire, Stewart Gore-Browne build himself a feudal paradise in Northern Rhodesia; a sprawling country estate modelled on the finest homes of England, complete with uniformed servants, daily muster parades and rose gardens. He wanted to share it with the love of his life, the beautiful unconventional Ethel Locke King, one of the first women to drive and fly. She, however, was nearly twenty years his senior, married and his aunt. Lorna, the only other woman he had ever cared for, had married another many years earlier. Then he met Lorna's orphaned daughter, so like her mother that he thought he had seen a ghost. It seemed he had found companionship and maybe love - but the Africa house was his dream and it would be a hard one to share.

From a world of British colonials in Africa, with their arrogance and vision, to the final sad denouement. Leaving the once majestic house abandoned and a forgotten ruin of a bygone age Christina Lamb evokes a story full of passion, adventure and final betrayal."

Hickman, Katie "Daughters of Britannia"

Hickman, Katie "Daughters of Britannia. The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives" - 1999

The story of many many wives of British diplomats, past and present, told by the daughter of one of them. Someone who grew up with this, someone who can give us a different perspective.

I am not a diplomat's wife but I know quite a few women who have followed their husband to foreign countries, myself included. And whether you move to a country far away or nearby, you are always the foreigner. I think in some respect, those who move with their country behind them might even have a slight advantage over those who are thrown into the deep water without a safety net.

Anyway, the book. A lot of details, an enormous amount of details, some of them highly interesting, others not so much, at least not for me, I don't care how large a diamond is that some lady wears, for example, it's enough to know that it's gigantic. But I loved to get to know the different wives, especially that the author introduced as Isabel Burton (Isabel Arundell), the wife of Richard Burton whom I got to know in "The Collector of Worlds" and "Nomad On Four Continents" (in German only). She was just as adventurous as he was. Then there are the different lists, like the ingredients of the typical household medicine cabinet in the 1800s. I love to see the difference to today, how far medicine has come since then.

All in all, if you have lived abroad or are just slightly interested in different worlds, different customs, this is a very interesting book.

Some of the quotes that touched me most because I have felt this often myself:
"It was then that I realised that the major problems arising from our nomadic life were going to affect me rather than him."

"I suppose, that different persons observe different things, and attribute to them a different degree of importance."

"'Women around fifty feel they have given up a lot in terms of a career of their own,' explains one Foreign Office counsellor. 'And then when they get to fifty they wonder where they are.'
It is not only jobs which are sacrificed. In diplomatic life a continuing sense of loss can permeate almost every aspect of life. 'You settle down for three or four years, you go off again, you settle again, you move again. Your children in general go away, when other parents in the UK are not experiencing that. You lose job opportunities; you lose friends; you lose identity, I think."

From the back cover:

"In an absorbing mixture of poignant biography and wonderfully entertaining social history, Daughters of Britannia offers the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West, and Lady Diana Cooper are among the well-known wives of diplomats who represented Britain in the far-flung corners of the globe. Yet, despite serving such crucial roles, the vast majority of these women are entirely unknown to history.

Drawing on letters, private journals, and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and mysterious world.

Touching on the lives of nearly 100 diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), Daughters of Britannia is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participants."

Conrad, Joseph "Heart of Darkness"

Conrad, Joseph "Heart of Darkness" - 1902

I found this book when reading Jane Smiley's "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel". It sounded interesting and I found it in the library the next time I went.

The author, a Polish novelist who wrote in English, wrote this story about an English captain who goes to Africa for an assignment. His ship is destroyed before he arrives and he is forced to travel into the dark continent. He conveys his thoughts about his experiences, his encounter with the inhabitants, both native and colonists.

Even though this is a novella, only 110 pages, so not very long, there is a lot of information crammed into the story, there is no way you can skip even one sentence and you will have lost the plot. He has a special kind of writing style, probably due to the fact that English is not his mother tongue and he still keeps the flow of his native language, as we probably all do somehow.

In any case, he gives us an interesting insight into colonisation, the impact it had on the people in Africa and also on the Europeans who went there. It is a highly interesting study about a part of history that still influences our lives today.

My favourite quote:
"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to ..."

From the back cover:

"In a novella which remains highly controversial to this day, Conrad explores the relations between Africa and Europe. On the surface, this is a horrifying tale of colonial exploitation. The narrator, Marlowe journeys on business deep into the heart of Africa. But there he encounters Kurtz, an idealist apparently crazed and depraved by his power over the natives, and the meeting prompts Marlowe to reflect on the darkness at the heart of all men. This short but complex and often ambiguous story, which has been the basis of several films and plays, continues to provoke interpretation and discussion.
Heart of Darkness grew out of a journey Joseph Conrad took up the Congo River; the verisimilitude that the great novelist thereby brought to his most famous tale everywhere enhances its dense and shattering power.

Apparently a sailor’s yarn, it is in fact a grim parody of the adventure story, in which the narrator, Marlow, travels deep into the heart of the Congo where he encounters the crazed idealist Kurtz and discovers that the relative values of the civilized and the primitive are not what they seem. Heart of Darkness is a model of economic storytelling, an indictment of the inner and outer turmoil caused by the European imperial misadventure, and a piercing account of the fragility of the human soul."