Why a Booktrail?
1964: A moving fictionalized account of Nothomb’s own father,
First Blood
What you need to know before your trail
A young man faces a firing squad, preparing for his last moment on Earth. He is known as a complex and complicated man whose childhood left him hungry for affection and attention and who transformed his emotional wounds into a brilliant career as a diplomat and a negotiator. Now he finds himself negotiating for his own life, together with the lives of 1,500 Congolese citizens.
Inspired by the life of her father and by her lifelong effort to understand him, Amélie Nothomb’s new novel is about life-and-death decisions, about reckoning with one’s past, reconciling with one’s parents, and about the hard, often humorous work of determining one’s own path.
Travel Guide
The novel is set primarily in Storyville which is known as Kisangani today as is illustrated on the map here. Kisangani is the capital of Tshopo province. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country and the largest of the cities that lie in the country’s tropical woodlands.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: First Blood
Destination: The Republic of the Congo Author/guide: Amélie Nothomb Departure Time: 1967
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