Présentation de l'éditeur
The Leopard's Wife is a novel of love in an impossible land. Smiles, a famous English concert pianist, wants to make amends with his African-American schoolmaster, Lyman Andrew, who has buried himself in the war-torn jungle of the Congo. Smiles owes his success to the man he helped ruin and harbors a dark secret from the past and his brutal public school. But a bomb has exploded at a hotel in Kinshasa where Smiles was due to play at a peace and reconciliation concert and he is accidentally invited to his own funeral. Coffins are broken open by the Presidential Guard and when he is not in his, Smiles is suspected of being one of the rebels. He escapes on a ramshackle boat with the grand piano meant for his recital, which is now destined for his old schoolmaster more than a thousand miles upriver, where the rebel forces are gathering and exiles are fleeing the war in the east. On the way he falls in love with Lola, the beautiful wife of Xavier, the head of the Presidential Guard and the Leopard of the title, and Smiles begins to appreciate anew the majesty of creation and the Congo as he brings Beethoven into the atrocity haunted forest. But all the time the Leopard is following . . .
Revue de presse
'Engrossing . . . Highly recommended . . . Pickering takes on some of the biggest themes of all -- love, war, art -- with a boldness that puts most novelists to shame. The Africa he has drawn leaps four-square from the page, at once beautiful and terrifying' Mail on Sunday
‘Brilliant black comedy’
The Times, 31/7
'A storm is rumbling its way towards the port of Kissangani on the Congo river and with it comes an angry mob. They are hunting foreigners and spies, which puts secret-laden pianist Stanley Miles-Harcourt and the beautiful Lola, the wife of a feared Congolese military officer known as The Leopard, in danger. Will they be able to escape with their lives and each other?'
Daily Express 3/6
'Paul Pickering's fine novel is an explosive brew of horror and romance'
Mail on Sunday 3/7
Quatrième de couverture
Forbidden love in an impossible land
'Have you ever been totally and completely in love? So that you cannot think of anyone else?'
On a ramshackle boat bearing his grand piano, concert pianist Stanley Miles-Harcourt heads up the Congo river into a world outside time. He is escorted by the exquisitely beautiful Lola, who is unfortunately married to a feared Congolese military officer - for 'even the leopard has a wife' as the Swahili proverb goes. Amid the beauty and terror of the forest, and despite the pianist's dark secret, 'Smiles' and Lola begin to fall in love, and dare to dream of a life for themselves beyond the horrors of war, while an ever vengeful leopard follows them into the darkness.
'Highly recommended … Pickering takes on some of the biggest themes of all - love, war, art - with a boldness that puts most novelists to shame. The Africa he has drawn leaps four-square from the page, at once beautiful and terrifying' Mail on Sunday
Biographie de l'auteur
Paul Pickering is the author of four novels: Charlie Peace, The Blue Gate of Babylon, Perfect English, and Wild About Harry. He lives in London, where he is a columnist for The Times.
