African Psycho
SynopsisPlot
Gregoire Nakobomayo, a petty criminal, has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine. He’s been planning the crime for some time. But the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation. Luckily, he has a mentor to call on, the far more accomplished serial killer Angoualima. The fact that Angoualima is dead doesn’t prevent Gregoire from holding lengthy conversations with him. Little by little, Gregoire interweaves Angoualima’s life and criminal exploits with his own. Continuing with the plan despite a string of botched attempts and abject failures, Gregoire’s final shot at offing Germaine leads to his abrupt unraveling. Lauded in France for its fresh and witty style, African Psycho’s inventive use of language surprises and delights, relieving the reader through an injection of humor into a plainly disturbing subject.
Story
About this book
Gregoire Nakobomayo is a small-time criminal in the Republic of the Congo who has settled on a grim objective: he intends to murder his girlfriend, Germaine. The plan has been taking shape for a while, but carrying it out proves far harder than he expected. For guidance, Gregoire turns to Angoualima, a notorious serial killer whose reputation looms large in local memory. Angoualima is dead, yet that does not stop Gregoire from conducting long, detailed conversations with him, treating the dead man as both advisor and model.
As Gregoire prepares, he begins folding Angoualima's criminal history into his own story, blurring the line between the two figures. His repeated failures to act on the plan pile up in ways that undercut his self-image as a dangerous man. The novel uses dark comedy to expose Gregoire's incompetence and self-delusion, building its tension from the gap between his aspirations and his actual capabilities.
Alain Mabanckou, born in Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo, wrote the novel in French. It was praised in France for its inventive language and sharp humor applied to unsettling material. The English translation brought the book to a wider audience outside the French-speaking world.
