The Catastrophist: A Novel - Hardcover

The Catastrophist is a novel of love, passion, violence, and desire, set in the Belgian Congo in 1959. While expatriates loll about their pools in a colonial paradise soon to erupt into chaos, huge crowds are drawn to the charismatic Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba - and his even more dangerous rivals.
One man sees the cracks appearing around him and struggles to hold on to his lover, his sanity, and ultimately his life. Gillespie, the outsider, a journalist, is in Leopoldville for the beautiful Italian, Ines. He is desperate for her love, while she is obsessed with the unfolding drama, caught up in history, ideology, hero worship.
In a world slipping out of control, gripped by disgust, fear, and incomprehension, Gillespie feels that events threaten to overwhelm him - as does his friendship with the amiable but sinister American, Stipe; his relationship with his canny native driver, Auguste; and, above all, his love for Ines.
It is Ines who defines Gillespie as a catastrofista, an Italian word for somebody for whom "no problem is small. Nothing can be fixed; it's always the end," for Gillespie is deeply pessimistic and skeptical about their relationship as well as politics, while Ines believes in engagement and commitment, whatever the risks - which, as it turns out, are greater than either of them can foresee.
As colonial corruption and injustice give way to turmoil, brutality, and murder, Gillespie is finally forced to confront what is happening before his eyes.

Ronan Bennett was born in 1956 and brought up in Belfast. He was a youthful demonstrator during the political upheavals in Ireland in the late sixties, and in 1974 was arrested and incarcerated for two years in the notorious Long Kesh prison camp. After moving to England, he went on to receive a Ph.D. in history from King's College, London, where he now lives. He writes regularly for the British and Irish press, and is the author of two previous novels and several award-winning scripts for U.K. film, television, and radio.