A literary take on the Boy's Own Adventure model - this is Indiana Jones meets Life of Pi
'A rip-roaring historical adventure.'
Scotland on Sunday
It is 1914. From the jungle at the heart of the Belgian Congo emerges a British manservant named Garvey. He is the lone survivor of a mining expedition in which both his masters have died, and all of the party's African porters have fled. With him, he carries two huge diamonds.
From his prison cell in London, Garvey recounts his horrific and thrilling ordeal. Young Tommy Thomson must transcribe Garvey's story and only he can unpick fact from fiction amidst the extraordinary mysteries of the Garvey case.
'Piñol is possessed of an exceptional, fecund and devious imagination.'
David Mitchell
'Going into that realm of hyperbolic fabulation where Umberto Eco has long made safari, this marks Piñol's emergence as a significant European writer.'
Giles Poden, Guardian
'Full of sci-fi happenings and tall tales, this sparky romp is addictive.'
Financial Times
Pandora in the Congo is a wonderful book on so many levels - the story within a story of Garvey's time in Africa, as recounted by Thomson, is thrilling and compulsive . . . Pinol deftly weaves his theme of deception into all strands of the story . . . this is a cracking story on so many levels - and one of which any master of magical realism would be just as proud as a teller of tales of derring do.