Bibliograph

Seven houses in France, Bernardo Atxaga ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

Type

Label

Seven houses in France, Bernardo Atxaga ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

novels

Main title

Seven houses in France

Oclc number

775416388

Responsibility statement

Bernardo Atxaga ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

Summary

The year is 1903, and the garrison of Yangambi on the banks of the River Congo is under the command of Captain Lalande Biran. The captain is also a poet whose ambition is to amass a fortune and return to the literary cafes of Paris. His glamorous wife Christine has a further ambition: to own seven houses in France, a house for every year he has been abroad. At Lalande Biran's side are the ex-legionnaire van Thiegel, a brutal womaniser, and the servile, treacherous Donatien, who dreams of running a brothel. The officers spend their days guarding enslaved rubber-tappers and kidnapping young girls, and at their hands the jungle is transformed into a wild circus of human ambition and absurdity. But everything changes with the arrival of a new officer and brilliant marksman: the enigmatic Chrysostome Liege

Classification