The Catastrophist: A Novel

by Ronan Bennett

  There is no one on the mountain. I am here, safe in my anomie. There is only the screech of the kites, the barking deer and the quiet work of the meltwater. I think I must leave this place and not come back.

  a u t h o r ’ s n o t e

  This is a work of fiction. Those with expert knowledge of the Belgian Congo will see that certain episodes have been bent to the demands of the novel’s narrative. That said, the general outline of events and much of the detail is true. The literature on the Congo’s independence is too large to catalogue here, but I would like to acknowledge the debt I owe it. I have taken Stipe’s definition of neoteny from William Jordan’s Divorce Among the Gulls.

  I would like to thank the Society of Authors for financial assistance in helping me undertake a research trip to Zaire in 1995.

  A version of Part Two appeared in the London Review of Books in 1992.

  Table of Contents

  Also by

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Contents

  Dedication

  sankuru river, december 1960

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  author’s note