8 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1996 (first edition) Originally published 1996 Publisher Penguin Books | 4/5 Goodreads Language English ISBN 978-0-14-103727-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pages 464 pp (third edition, paperback) Genres Autobiographical novel, Travel literature Similar Redmond O'Hanlon books, Africa books, Travel books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Congo Journey (1996) is an autobiographical novel by British author Redmond O'Hanlon, following his trip across Congo-Brazzaville (now Republic of the Congo), taking a friend to Lake Tele in search of Mokèlé-mbèmbé, a legendary Congo dinosaur.
Travel writer Michael Shapiro considers the book as one of the "top 30 travel books of all time," and declares the book, chronicling the author's search for the legendary dinosaur, to be in the literary tradition of Joseph Conrad. O’Hanlon's adventure, he says, is by turns dangerous and funny, as he "takes the long way to the lake and nearly gets killed by a village headman", trying to save a baby gorilla, while he "battles his demons and the haunting spirits of Central Africa." According to Shapiro, O’Hanlon emerges from the jungle a changed man. The novel was republished in 1997 for United States readers as No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo.