King Leopold's Ghost was first read by my father, who gave it to my mother, who then insisted that I read it. It is an incredibly gripping nonfiction account of the colonization of the Western Africa region known now as the Congo.
The book is many things at once: the indictment of a genocide, a profile of a megalomaniac, a short history of life at the turn of the 20th century on several continents, as well as a cautionary tale about greed and manifest destiny. It's a truly excellent book, with twists and turns, and characters that couldn't have been made up. I know I read a lot of nonfiction, but this is a work of nonfiction that even someone who scorns the genre will enjoy.
Posted by waking slow at July 19, 2006 02:07 PM