david van reybrouck congo. a history
(Congo. Een geschiedenis) * The fate of one of the world’s most devastated countries. Sold over 30,000 copies • English proposal and sample chapter available • Nominated for the ako Literature Prize 2010 and the Libris History Prize • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Nonfiction, 550 pages David Van Reybrouck begins his gripping account of hope and madness in the 1870s and chronicles the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial era up to 2010, the fiftieth anniversary of Congo’s independence. His vivid narrative zooms in on the impact of the slave trade and the late-nineteenthcentury rubber boom, presents lively portraits of Belgian colonization, the struggle for independence, Lumumba’s tragic life and Mobutu’s dictatorship, and details the causes of the war that has raged between 1996 and the present, the deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Congo. A history is based on little-known archival sources and extensive travelling in Central-Africa. The hundreds of interviews which Van Reybrouck conducted both in the slums of Kinshasa and in the villages of the interior, as well as in the African diaspora of Europe and China, lend a unique dimension to a rich and convoluted history.
david van reybrouck (b. 1971) is a journalist, a literary non-fiction writer, a novelist, a poet and a playwright. Many of his books were nominated and have won literary prizes. His work has been translated into French (Actes Sud), Afrikaans (Protea) and Hungarian (Gondolat). He lives in Brussels. ‘Sublime… monumental… virtuoso. This literary non-fiction is more thrilling than a novel can be.’ – nrc handelsblad ‘Accurate, renewing, well balanced. This book gives a lot of room to the Congolese experience of the past… It makes it an excellent read.’ – de standaard ‘It’s raining Congo books. But this one outclasses all competition in a spectacular way: it’s more important, more intelligent, written better, yes, even thicker than all others… An incredible tour de force.’ – humo
Translation rights De Bezige Bij Frankfurt 2010, contact h.deinum@debezigebij.nl © text De Bezige Bij