Brazzaville Beach

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Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars of the Congo both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists.

This large island sits in the middle of the Congo river between Brazzaville and Kinshasa. There are a few villages on the island, where people live a quiet life that seems a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Though Hope seems to have come to terms with the events of her life that led her to reside on Brazzaville Beach, the reader may not find it quite so easy. And that's a good thing, because it makes this a novel that will stay with you even after you close the cover. John Clearwater, Hope's former husband, is a mathematician thirsty for discovery and fame. This part of the narrative is set in London, where the couple share her flat in South Kensington, and southern England, where Hope works as an ecologist on an intriguing hedgerow mapping project in Dorset. At the beginning of their marriage the two are very much in love with Hope believing that John is the ideal man for her owing to his rather eccentric but empathetic character and strong intelligence. She is uninterested in working after getting her PhD until her former Professor forces her to take on the hedgerow mapping project. After being interviewed by Munro, its leader, Hope discovers she is pleased to be working once more, losing weight because she is outside all day, and enjoying the disciplined approach she has to adopt:

I ended up just staying in Sinoa the whole time, which was just as well because it was a bit too hot for hiking. Bring plenty of water and sun cream.

This is a book that could easily be read on two levels. The ideas in it about scientific ambition and evolution may not be particularly original, but they are very well presented, and Boyd even manages to make the maths discussions comprehensible and interesting, with something to say about the wider world. But put all the ideas and themes to one side, and the book becomes a simple but compelling story of Hope's life. She is an exceptionally well drawn character, a strong, intelligent, independent woman, self-reliant sometimes to the point of coldness, but I found it easy to empathise with her nonetheless. The easiest but most expensive way would be to hire a motorized canoe at Mami Wata. But they charge between 45,000 and 60,000 CFA, which is kind of a rip off. Inaugurated in 2016, the bridge’s real name is the Bridge of 15 August 1960. This is the date when the Republic of the Congo gained independence from France, and most people just refer to the bridge as “Independence Bridge” for short.Set inside peaceful grounds where huge old trees provide welcome shade, the building itself is quite basic and in need of repairs. You’ll find the entrance on the corner of Avenue de la Paix and Rue Mayama. Sometimes referred to as “dandies” in English, the sapeurs of Brazzaville are men who dress up in stylish, colorful suits and strut their stuff around town. It’s about more than just clothes, though; it’s an identity and a way of life for these guys. Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him. For one thing, I never “bought” that a woman of Hope’s brilliance, single-mindedness and beauty would be attracted to her husband, John Clearwater. His character is somewhat underdeveloped; certainly, the attraction is not amply explored. Admittedly, I am not a “math person”, but the many explorations of game theory, turbulance, catastrophe theory, divergence syndromes and other chaos theory components sometimes left me shaking my head. They seemed just a little too clever.

I just returned from Brazzaville and firstly…thank you so much for writing this because it is very difficult to get good info about Congo especially in English. From what I know a recent guidebook exists but it is in French. The drive of the plot centres around Hope’s work observing chimpanzees in the world’s leading scientific project on the subject of the animals. She’s cottoned on to the fact that strange things are happening within her community of chimps that have taken themselves away from the main group. The chimps from the north are sending patrols into the southern territories and this is the cause for a lot of interest. Unfortunately for her, the more she finds out, the more she realises that her discoveries are contrary to the theories of her eminent bosses and it seems that they’ll go to any length to suppress her findings.In the middle of all this is the main protagonist, Hope. She has a sister named Faith. Their parents are boring, we learn at a birthday party. This memorial to Brazzaville’s namesake was quite controversial when it was erected in 2006. Opinion is divided about De Brazza, an Italian-born Frenchman who convinced the local king to place his kingdom under the protection of the French, making the Congo a French colony.