Overall Take:
This book is a commitment but worth the time and buy.
Star Rating:
5 Stars
Synopsis:
Congo was just set free from Belgium in 1960. Just days later, their new military is mutinied, and Belgium forces intervenes and its leader, Patrice Lumumba turns to the United Nations for help. With chaos spreading, and the UN not helping, Lumumba turns to the Soviets for help which sets off alarm bells with the CIA.
Within a year everything is unraveling. The CIA plots to kill Lumumba, but that fizzles. A young military officer, Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba seizes power in Congo with US help. For the Congolese people, the years 1060-1961 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story.
Thoughts:
This was such an interesting book. I am always intimidated by the size of non-fiction books that end up on my shelf, so lately I have been turning to audio versions to help me through, and that is what I did here. I was able to grab a copy of this one thanks to @PRHAudio. The narrator on this book was one of my favorite narrators to date, they were fantastic and just made the book worth listening to. I was engaged and interested in the subject throughout thanks in part to them. I don’t know much about the cold war to begin with beyond what I’ve watched on tv (so nothing since it’s made up), and what I knew about Congo was even less, so this book was very interesting. The writing was very good, and it was obvious that the topic was well researched. I enjoyed the authors note at the end explaining a few points, it helped add to the validity of the story.
Thanks for my copy to:
Penguin Random House Audio for the audio version and thank you to Knopf, @aaknopf for sending me this one.
Publication Date:
October 2, 2023
Page Length:
640 Pages
Availability:
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/4aiOt7e
