Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the French (D R Congo) by Roland Glasser

Set in the 1990s in Mujila’s native Democratic Republic of Congo, this takes the form of the stories of three characters, and three storylines that alternate and come together in the last part of the book. It all takes place during the last years of the first President of Zaire (now DRC), Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu’s was a military dictatorship, notorious for corruption and nepotism, and his extravagant lifestyle.

Local life of the three young male protagonists has music and nightlife in common, and the craze at the time of ‘the villain’s dance’, a mad frenzy that often went on for days, a chance to escape the poverty and stress of everyday life.

There is a vague sort of plot running through the novel, as the Mobutu regime falls, but the 54 chapters are largely episodic with humour ever present.
It is boisterous and vivid, occasionally funny, though not providing the level of entertainment of the tremendous Tram 83.

My GoodReads score 3 / 5