The Villain's Dance
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature
Full of wit, music, and a rollicking cast of characters, The Villain's Dance shows Fiston Mwanza Mujila is back with a bang.
Zaire. Late 90's. Mobutu's thirty-year reign is tottering. In Lubumbashi, the stubbornly homeless Sanza has fallen in with a trio of veteran street kids led by the devious Ngungi. A chance encounter with the mysterious Monsieur Guillaume seems to offer a way out . . . Meanwhile in Angola, Molakisi has joined thousands of fellow Zairians hoping to make their fortunes hunting diamonds, while Austrian Franz finds himself roped into writing the memoirs of the charismatic Tshiamuena, the "Madonna of the Cafunfo Mines." Things are drawing to a head, but at the Mambo de la Fête, they still dance the Villain's Dance from dusk till dawn.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila takes readers on a wild ride through Central Africa in a surreal, adventurous fusion of comedy, drama, and politics. In the 1990s, Zaire is home to an improbable cast of characters struggling to prevail under a corrupt government. A wildly eccentric woman has proclaimed herself the deity of the local diamond mines. She’s urging an Austrian expatriate to pen her biography, though he prefers drinking and dancing at the local hotspot, Mambo de la Fête. A handful of homeless street kids sniff glue and make trouble while serving as legmen for one Monsieur Guillaume, while others seek their fortunes across the border in Angola. Mujila employs a singular brand of magic realism as his tale swings from one stage to the next, and his rhythmic wordplay mimics dazzling musical rhythms. It’s as strange, funny, scary, and moving as life itself.
