Books like 'Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament'
Readers who enjoyed Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament by In Koli Jean Bofane also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary action / adventure literary-fiction historical-fiction satire journey crime university politics humor
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The Little Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe name The Little Golden Calf comes from the Bible, the Book of Exodus 32:1-4 Delighted applause from both sides of the Atlantic greeted the first publication of this comic clasic about Soviet life in the early years after the Revolution. Social changes then were so drastic and came so thick and fast that even most Russians were confused...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhadan
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRecalling the brutal landscape of The Road and the wartime storytelling of A Farewell to Arms, The Orphanage is a searing novel that excavates the human collateral damage wrought by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction journey fiction war contemporary audiobook 21st-century -
Negeri Para Bedebah by Tere Liye
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsDi negeri para bedebah, kisah fiksi kalah seru dibanding kisah nyata.Di negeri para bedebah, musang berbulu domba berkeliaran di halaman rumah.Tetapi setidaknya, Kawan, di negeri para bedebah, petarung sejati tidak akan pernah berkhianat... -
Brother's Keeper III: Luke by Stephanie St. Klaire
Rated: 4.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLuke O’Reilly has seen it all, done it all, and lived through it all. When a career ending injury forces him to retire from the military, he struggles to adapt. Luke was born to be a soldier, not conform to the nine-to-five mediocrity of everyday life. He needs to protect and serve like he needs his next breath... -
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The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi, سعود السنعوسي
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsDaring and bold, The Bamboo Stalk takes an unflinching look at the universal struggles of identity, race, and class as they intersect between two disparate societies: Kuwait and the Philippines. Josephine comes to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid, where she meets Rashid, a spoiled but kind-hearted only son...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Álvaro Mutis
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMaqroll the Gaviero (the Lookout) is one of the most alluring and memorable characters in the fiction of the last twenty-five years...Categorized as:
crime humor journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
Guilty as Sin by Rosalind James
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThere are secrets. There are guilty secrets. And then there's switching places with your twin. Paige Hollander and her identical twin Lily stopped switching places a decade ago. But Lily's run into trouble, and Paige is on leave from the SFPD, recovering from a traumatic shooting. It's not like she has anything better to do, and she remembers how to be feminine. Sort of... -
The Day That Never Comes by Caimh McDonnell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRemember those people that destroyed the economy and then cruised off on their yachts? Well guess what – someone is killing them. Dublin is in the middle of a heat wave and tempers are running high... -
The Havoc of Choice by Wanjiru Koinange
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings2007, KenyaLong held captive by her father’s shadow of corruption, Kavata has spent her life suffocated by political machinations. When her husband decides to run in the next election, these shadows threaten to consume her home. Unable to bear this darkness,Kavata plots to escape. As her family falls apart, so too does her country...Categorized as:
politics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction fiction contemporary corruption family -
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFirst published in Spanish in 1998, The Savage Detectives was immediately hailed as a critical success, wining the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize. But with the 2007 English-language translation the book became more than a bestseller -- it began the global sensation of Bolanomania. New Year's Eve 1975, Mexico City...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction university 20th-century action-adventure -
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the exiled Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet, and literary critic--a magisterial comic novel that is certain to take its place as a landmark of postcolonial African literature.In exile now for more than twenty years, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has become one of the most widely read African writers of our time, the power and scope of his work garnering him international attention and praise...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction politics satire 21st-century action-adventure -
American by Day: A Novel by Derek B. Miller, Sean Mangan
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA gripping and timely novel that follows Sigrid - the dry-witted detective from Derek B. Miller's best-selling debut Norwegian by Night - from Oslo to the United States on a quest to find her missing brother.She knew it was a weird place.She'd heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books... -
East of the West by Miroslav Penkov
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA brilliant debut from a rising talent praised by Salman Rushdie, among others.A grandson tries to buy the corpse of Lenin on eBay for his Communist grandfather. A failed wunderkind steals a golden cross from an orthodox church. A boy meets his cousin (the love of his life) once every five years in the waters of the river that divides their village into East and West... -
Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFour gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennialIntroducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story... -
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My Friends by Hisham Matar
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA young man leaves behind more than he realizes to follow his passions in this major, luminous novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return.The trick time plays is to lull us into the belief that everything lasts forever, and although nothing does, we continue, inside our dream...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics journey africa northern-africa libya fiction -
The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsWith the publication of "The Overcoat" in 1842, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) inaugurated a new chapter in Russian literature, in which the underdog and social misfit is treated not as a figure of fun or an object of charity, but as a human being with as much right to happiness as anybody else...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction university action-adventure adult anthologies classics contemporary -
Get in the Car, Jupiter by Fisher Amelie
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWANTED FOR ARSON. CATFISHED AT SANTA'S. ROBBED AT THE FALLS. SHAKESPEARE OR DIE. DRIVER PICKS TUNES. I'm weird. This isn't news to me or anything. I have lived in a UFO my entire life. This wasn't a coincidence. My parents believe in extraterrestrial life. You know, phone home and all that crap, and they dragged my sister Mercury and I into their mess when they named us what they named us... -
Finally, Forever by Katie Kacvinsky, Katie Ray
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAuthor's Note: Can be read as book three of the First Comes Love series, or as a standalone .College baseball player, Gray Thomas, had to go far out into left field to find a girl like Dylan, the ex-love-of-his-life. More than a year later, literally at a crossroads, they find each other together on a journey that is a pause between a painful past and an uncertain future... -
Captain Dreamboat by Tawna Fenske
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJonathan Bracelyn pours his soul into saving the world, and he’s still nowhere near cancelling out the sins of dear ol’ dad. But when a medical crisis prompts Jon to toss his sister the ultimate lifeline, he’s forced to hang up his captain’s hat and hit pause on the one thing that makes him…well, him. At least he has Blanka Pavlo’s heart-flooding smile to buoy his spirits... -
My Lemon Grove Summer by Jo Thomas
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'Rich, warm and sunny. A story that stays with you long after the last page is turned' Milly Johnson Could the lemon groves of Sicily be the perfect place to start over? The irresistible new novel from Jo Thomas, the author of Sunset Over the Cherry Orchard, will transport you to the island of mountains and sparkling blue seas. When life hands you lemons ..Categorized as:
journey humor literary-fiction romance womens-fiction fiction 21st-century contemporary -
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings49-year-old safety inspector-turned-beekeeper Sergey Sergeich, wants little more than to help his bees collect their pollen in peace.But Sergey lives in Ukraine, where a lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda has been dragging on for years...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics journey europe east-europe ukraine fiction -
The Disoriented by Amin Maalouf
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter 25 years in exile, Adam travels from France to his homeland in the Middle East to bid farewell to his dying childhood friend.One night, a phone rings in Paris. Adam learns that Mourad, once his closest friend, is dying. He quickly throws some clothes in a suitcase and takes the first flight out, to the homeland he fled twenty-five years ago...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics action-adventure adult book contemporary -
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsEd Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics satire university 20th-century -
The Friendly Air by Elizabeth Cadell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYoung, beautiful Emma Challis should have been happy about her engagement to Gerald Delmont. After all, wasn't he a brilliant and sophisticated young man and wasn't his legal career one of the most promising in all of London? Everyone seemed to agree that Gerald was the perfect husband for Emma -- everyone but Lady Grantly... -
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Worth a Shot by Gail Haris
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne simple run-in got me more than I bargained for...and now I can’t go back. It might be dangerous, but it might just be worth a shot. Victoria Angel… It was just a cup of coffee…that’s all I was after. Some much-needed caffeine to get me through wedding dress shopping. That’s it. But I guess the universe had other plans... -
An Unlasting Home: A Novel by Mai Al-Nakib
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"So fresh and unsettling that it will enchant you from the first page and linger for days after reading...Its epic family saga style echoes that of Hala Alyan’s Salt Houses and The Arsonists’ City , Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies , and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction journey fiction contemporary family audiobook poc-mc -
Don't Go There by Missy Johnson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHelping my cousin Lily sneak into her ex’s wedding was a big mistake. Assuming that her text fail wasn’t that video of me, rocking the shit out of a karaoke song was an even bigger one. I thought I rocked that performance. Her entire contact list now has proof that I didn’t... -
No Sunscreen for the Dead by Tim Dorsey
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSerge and Coleman are back on the road, ready to hit the next stop on their list of obscure and wacky points of interest in the Sunshine State. This time, Serge’s interest is drawn to one of the largest retirement villages in the world—also known as the site of an infamous sex scandal between a retiree and her younger beau that rocked the community...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor satire action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth audiobook -
The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLusaka, Zambia: Zoe Fleming is a young, idealistic American lawyer working with an NGO devoted to combatting the epidemic of child sexual assault in southern Africa. Zoe’s organization is called in to help when an adolescent girl is brutally assaulted. The girl’s identity is a mystery... -
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: A Christmas Short-Story Collection by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the always eventful worlds of Jodi Taylor, it's never Christmas without illegal expeditions, riotous misbehaviour and stories you just can't put down . . .This festive collection takes readers from Frogmorton Farm to Time Police HQ via the Institute of Historical Research at St Mary's in five (and a bit) short stories. A Bumper Bundle of Christmas tales all in print for the very first time...Categorized as:
humor historical-fiction literary-fiction time-travel fiction fantasy audiobook anthologies -
Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFrom the best-selling author of Skinny Dip and Razor Girl, a new novel that captures the Trump era with Hiaasen's inimitable savage humor and wonderful, eccentric characters. A surefire best seller.Carl Hiaasen's Squeeze Me is set among the landed gentry of Palm Beach... -
A Heart So White by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.Javier Marías's A Heart So White chronicles with unnerving insistence the relentless power of the past. Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction journey literary-fiction university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away by Christopher Brookmyre
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBack when they were students, just like everybody else, Ray Ash and Simon Darcourt had dreams about what they'd do when they grew up. In both their cases, it was to be rock stars. Fifteen years later, their mid-thirties are bearing down fast, and just like everybody else, they're having to accept the less glamorous hands reality has dealt them... -
The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernières
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThis rambunctious first novel by the author of the bestselling Corelli's Mandolin is set in an impoverished, violent, yet ravishingly beautiful country somewhere in South America. When the haughty Dona Constanza decides to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, the consequences are at once tragic, heroic, and outrageously funny...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction politics satire 20th-century -
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The Housewife Assassin's Guide to Gracious Killing by Josie Brown
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn Book 2 of THE HOUSEWIFE ASSASSIN series,a nuclear arms summit hosted by a politically-connected American billionaire industrialist provides the perfect opportunity for a rogue operative to assassinate of the newly-elected Russian president on US soil. Acme operative Donna Stone's mission: seek and exterminate, before all hell--and World War III--break loose... -
Comfort Zone by Missy Johnson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWalking into Jake’s bachelor party to see my professor motorboating a stripper? Talk about Awkward. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t completely hot for the guy. I had been since I first walked into that feline anatomy class and saw him performing chest compressions on a Persian cat named Andrew... -
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSasha Filipenko traces the arc of Russian history from Stalin's terror to the present day, in a novel full of heart and humanity.One struggles not to forget, while the other would like nothing better. Tatiana Alexeyevna is an old woman, over ninety, rich in lived experience, and suffering from Alzheimer's. Every day, she loses a few more of her irreplaceable memories...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics literary-fiction journey fiction contemporary audiobook war -
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSwimming in the clear blue waters of the Rainbow Hotel, Daniel Benchimol finds a waterproof camera, belonging to Moira, a Mozambican artist, famous for a series of photos depicting her own dreams – a woman he, Daniel, dreams about repeatedly... -
Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGeorge Gastin is a Bay Area tow-truck operator who wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam. One of the cars he is hired to demolish is a snow-white Cadillac that was supposed to be a present for the Big Bopper, who died in the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Gastin has a change of heart and takes off in the car, heading for Texas where the Bopper is buried...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary -
How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Earth has been sold to aliens. What could possibly go wrong?It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world's leaders have taken the only logical decision.They’ve sold the planet... -
Heart Seizure by Bill Fitzhugh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSpence Tailor, a lawyer with an actual set of principles, loves his mama, Rose. Rose—with advanced cardiomyopathy and a rare blood type—is scheduled for a heart transplant. But when the president's heart craps out during a photo op three months before the national election, the White House chief of staff orders the FBI to seize the heart that was going to Rose—all in the name of democracy... -
The Nonexistent Knight & The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTwo novellas: the first, a parody of medieval knighthood told by a nun; the second, a fantasy about a nobleman bisected into his good and evil halves. “Bravura pieces... executed with brilliance and brio”(Chicago Tribune). Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff BookOriginally published as two distinct volumes: 'Il visconte dimezzato' (1952) and 'Il cavaliere inesistente' (1959)...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Leaves of the Banyan Tree by Albert Wendt
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction journey politics fiction 20th-century classics male-author -
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsStrong, Sassy women and hard-luck hardheaded men, all searching for the middle ground between Native American tradition and the modern world, perform an elaborate dance of approach and avoidance in this magical, rollicking tale by Cherokee author Thomas King...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction politics satire university 20th-century -
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I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.But there are rules:He cannot look inside the box.He cannot ask questions... -
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSometimes they talk all night long. In the still darkness of their cell, Molina re-weaves the glittering and fragile stories of the film he loves, and the cynical Valentin listens. Valentin believes in the just cause which makes all suffering bearable; Molina believes in the magic of love which makes all else endurable...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics university 20th-century action-adventure -
Suddenly A Knock On The Door by Etgar Keret
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the critically acclaimed master short-story teller Etgar Keret, his long-awaited and biggest selling collection - the first in nearly ten years.Etgar Keret is an ingenious and original master of the short story. Hilarious, witty and always unusual, declared a 'genius' by the New York Times, Keret brings all of his prodigious talent to bear in this, his sixth bestselling collection... -
Mia è la vendetta by Eka Kurniawan
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAjo Kawir, un adolescente di Giava ossessionato dal sesso e un po' voyeur, assiste suo malgrado allo stupro di una donna bellissima da parte di due poliziotti e, a causa del trauma, diventa impotente... -
Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt's every parrothead's dream: to leave behind the rat race of the workaday world and start life all over again amidst the cool breezes, sun-drenched colors, and rum-laced drinks of a tropical paradise.It's the story of Norman Paperman, a New York City press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvent himself as a hotel keeper...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction satire action-adventure adult audiobook -
Three Trapped Tigers by Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCabrera Infante's masterpiece, Three Trapped Tigers is one of the most playful books to reach the U.S. from Cuba. Filled with puns, wordplay, lists upon lists, and Sternean typography--such as the section entitled "Some Revelations," which consists of several blank pages--this novel has been praised as a more modern, sexier, funnier, Cuban Ulysses...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book
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