Congo Journey

Seven years in the making, Congo Journey is destined to become one of the classics of travel literature. Ostensibly a quest for Mokele-mbembe, the Congo dinosaur (whose secret becomes clear), this story of travel through the jungles and swamp forests of the northern Congo is Tolstoyan in its depth, scope and range of characters, and as vivid as Nabokov in its image and detail. A portrait of a country, it is alive with natural history: eagles and parrots, hornbills and sunbirds; forest cobras and crocodiles; gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys, swamp antelope, forest elephants - and one Giant Gambian rat. A search for the meaning of sorcery, the purpose of religion (and a celebration of the comfort and mysteries of science), it is also an adventure told with great narrative force. Of course there is a darker side to the Congo, and that, too, is recorded here.