The Book of the Heathen: A Novel of the Congo [Hardcover]

Robert Edric (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2002

1897. In an isolated station in the Belgian Congo, an Englishman is to be tried for the murder of a native child. Imprisoned in a makeshift jail, Nicholas Frere awaits the arrival of the Company's official investigator while his friend, James Frasier, attempts to discover the circumstances which surround the charge.

The world around them is rapidly changing: the horrors of the Belgian Congo are becoming known and the flow of its once-fabulous wealth is drying up. Unrest flares unstoppably into violence.

Frere's coming trial will seek to determine considerably more than the killing of a child. But at the heart of this conflict is a secret so dark, so unimaginable, that one man must be willingly destroyed by his possession of it, and the other must both sanction and participate in that destruction.

In a narrative of ever-quickening and growing intensity, The Book of the Heathen explores notions of honor, friendship, justice and reason in a world where men have been forced by circumstance to descend into an abyss of savagery and terror. The Book of the Heathen is a stunning novel that truly evokes a Conradian heart of darkness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British writer Edric (The Broken Lands) stakes a claim in Joseph Conrad territory with this haunting novel set in the late 19th century in the Belgian Congo, where the concession-holding British have mined the land to exhaustion with little regard for the starving indigenous population. The story is told through the eyes of James Frasier, an English mapmaker, whose friend, Nicholas Frere, is accused of murdering a young African girl. Frere, a British engineer, languishes in filthy jails, offering neither response nor defense. The case draws the attention of the European public, which is just beginning to open its eyes to the abuses of power in colonial Africa. Frasier is unable to understand how Frere, whom he knows to be a good man, could have been guilty. He is certain there is more to the case than anyone realizes, yet he's unprepared for the horrifying truth behind the murder or for the explosion of killing that follows its revelation. Other characters in this desolate outpost include Father Klein, a sadomasochistic and faithless preacher, whose followers include two native women, Perpetua and Felicity, despite his cruelty; and Hammad, a powerful, cynical Muslim native, who deals in the slave trade as British authorities look the other way. Edric's coldly unadorned style allows the historical facts to speak for themselves; the corruption of the colonial administration is spotlighted all the more. There are no pretty characters or easy lessons here, but the book paints a memorable picture of this ravaged stretch of jungle and the misery of the people-both European and African-who inhabited it at the height of the European empires.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

At a declining British outpost in the Congo, a man stands accused of murdering a young native girl. The prisoner, Nicholas Frere, an intelligent and once-respected employee, denies none of the charges. His sole remaining friend, James Frasier (the narrator), is the only one who has not already judged and condemned Frere. Everyone around him, from fellow employees to the local trade baron and the deranged priest of a local mission, seems to have a suspiciously motivated interest in Frere's upcoming trial and fate. Edric's latest novel follows his standard procedure, exploring human endurance in bleak circumstances and the dark side of human nature. Failure, disappointment, and decline are among the personal battles fought by each character. Complicating the story is the unreliable narrator, who is unable or unwilling to see through the deceits and subterfuge of the other characters. Readers looking for casual entertainment should look elsewhere; this is not a novel whose meaning can be fully appreciated in one reading. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating and compelling tale. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312288883
• ISBN-13: 978-0312288884
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #464,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of Darkness has never been so dark., November 13, 2002

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Book of the Heathen: A Novel of the Congo (Hardcover)

It is 1897, and a motley group of British functionaries is running a concessionary station, only marginally successful, in Ukassa Falls in the Congo Free State, trading and exploring, mapping new areas of the country for further exploration, and using natives to strip minerals from quarries. Individually, however, their primary mission is protecting themselves and their jobs, while keeping an eye on a more lucrative Belgian enterprise across the river and on the slave-trader Hammad, who fancies himself the potential emperor of a future, native-run country. When gunfire signals the arrival of an unexpected visitor, Capt. James Frasier hopes it means the return to British jurisdiction of his friend, Nicholas Frere, who, missing for 51 days in the wilderness, is now in Belgian custody, awaiting trial for killing a native child.

At an agonizingly slow pace, Edric builds the tension and an ominous sense of mystery. Though he readily admits his guilt, Frere refuses to defend himself, simply accepting whatever fate has in store. He is almost certain to be turned over to local authorities in Brazzaville for trial and hanging, eventually, but he will not tell anyone, even Frasier, the circumstances of the child's death.

Edric's characters come to life through their conversations, conflicts, and actions, rather than through passive descriptions or long biographies. The reader, too, must be active, accumulating important details on his own by observing the action, some of it intense, and participating in it, however reluctantly. Several grim and explicit scenes of atrocity attest to Edric's abhorrence of the mistreatment of indigenous people (the subject also of his novel Elysium, set in Tasmania) and of the destruction of birds and wildlife. His opposition to colonial arrogance, religious fanaticism, mindless bureaucracy, and lock-step adherence to rules and regulations underlies all the action here.

Describing the wilderness as "more permanent and invincible than anything else I can imagine, something as potent and as indestructible as evil or truth itself," Edric transmutes it into a living force which dramatically affects all its inhabitants. The river, with its traffic, both unites and divides, and when, at flood tide, it scours its banks and destroys pilings and jetties, one cannot help but see parallels with the interrogations of the steadfast Frere. Images of light and dark and echoes of Heart of Darkness are constant, and when "the horror" is finally revealed at the end, it out-horrors anything Conrad ever dreamed of. With a conclusion full of literary pyrotechnics, this is a chilling recreation of the worst nightmares of colonialism and of man's inhumanity to man. Mary Whipple

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but Edric is no Graham Greene., July 17, 2003

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of the Heathen: A Novel of the Congo (Hardcover)

This is a story of the Congo, before WWI. It takes place at a remote British trading station in decline. The protagonist, while not naïve, is inexperienced. Most of the British, especially the protagonist, are decent people, while the Congo itself is the home of depravity. The main character, while intellectually very astute, is also inexperienced, and has a fatal interest in, even attraction, to aspects of this depravity. Had Graham Greene written this book, the story would have delved deeply into the psychology of this character, but Edric is not up to such a task as a writer. What we have is a competently written story. While there are some sensational events, most of the story proceeds at a leisurely pace, while still being interesting. Edric is good with dialogue and in capturing the atmosphere. I wonder if the main event isn't too sensational, and not realistic, or at least not representative of the Congo, but for the most part Edric writes in an understated way, without loss of effect.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, March 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of the Heathen: A Novel of the Congo (Hardcover)

while there were many interesting elements in the story and the telling of the tale, my feeling is that this book would have made a much better short story than full-on novel. there is far too much "filler" and when i finished the book and looked back on what actually happened, i realised that the only parts that i found grabbed me were at the very beginning and the very end. the middle part was just transportation to where the story picks up again.