Brazzaville Beach

William Boyd
3.96
6,427 ratings 471 reviews
In the heart of a civil war-torn African nation, primate researcher Hope Clearwater made a shocking discovery about apes and man . . . Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.
Genres: FictionAfricaContemporaryLiterary FictionBook ClubLiteratureNovelsHistorical FictionAdventureThriller
320 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
1848 (29%)
4 star
2853 (44%)
3 star
1398 (22%)
2 star
264 (4%)
1 star
64 (1%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by William Boyd

Lists with this book

Things Fall Apart
The Poisonwood Bible
Half of a Yellow Sun
Africa (fiction and nonfiction)
1741 books1603 voters
The Poisonwood Bible
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Out of Africa
Best books for an African Safari
474 books523 voters
Things Fall Apart
Half of a Yellow Sun
Long Walk to Freedom
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
The Poisonwood Bible
Heart of Darkness
Books Set in the Congo
163 books92 voters