The after-effects of Europe's doomed attempt to colonize Africa continue to manifest themselves in the almost constant civil wars tearing the latter continent apart. Nations such as Rwanda and Congo seem to be struggling to discover a new national identity after dealing for so long with the imposition of false borders and—perhaps worse—false hopes at the hands and mouths of their erstwhile invaders. In both cases, a good deal of blame falls on the Belgians, one of the more egregious of Africa's would-be settlers, conquerors, and exploiters. Just as Philip Gourevitch's non-fiction book We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families illustrates Rwanda's troubled relationship with Belgium, Ronan Bennett's excellent new novel The Catastrophist provides a glimpse at what went wrong in the Belgian Congo. Recalling some of the works of Graham Greene and E.M. Forster, the book sets obsessive romance against bloody revolution, contorting the personal into the political. James Gillespie is an Irish novelist who travels to the Congo in 1959 to track down an Italian Communist journalist with whom he has fallen in love. He finds her actively supporting Patrice Lumumba's campaign for independence, but also discovers that their strained relationship has taken a backseat to her idealistic work toward the liberation of Congo. The more Gillespie pursues her, the more he's inadvertently drawn into the region's dangerous and complicated politics, with disastrous results for both his relationship and his mental and physical safety. Brilliantly researched and rendered, The Catastrophist sets its compelling tale of obsession, intrigue, and erotic disillusion against actual historic events, cannily manipulated by Bennett to the betterment of the increasingly claustrophobic and suspenseful narrative. As the book speeds toward a violent and satisfying conclusion, Bennett gravitates toward the stern political viewpoint that in times of great social stress, there can never be impartiality in politics; politics eventually compels its participants to choose sides in order to rationalize the almost arbitrary success of one evil over another. Bennett's novel makes this point powerfully, through the chaos of civil war and in the uniquely alienated relationship of its protagonists.