As the title suggests (and similarly to other works by Tanzanian-born, Australian-residing author Katherine Scholes), Congo Dawn is set in Africa at a time when the Congo nation was fighting a war against a surge of uprising communism.
Anna Emerson was born in this virtually landlocked nation located in the centre of the African continent. At seven years old, her parents split up and Marilyn, Anna’s mother, took their daughter back to her homeland of Australia.
For seventeen years neither woman had any contact with Karl Emerson in any form. When a plane ticket is suddenly thrust into Anna’s hands by a mysterious man who had been following her, along with the announcement that Karl, her father, is terminally ill and wants to see his daughter one last time, she is thrown into conflict. How could she betray her mother who hates Karl with a passion, but on the other hand, how could Anna live with herself if he passed away without seeing his dying wish fulfilled?
Not surprisingly, Marilyn is shattered when she learns her only child intends to return to the God-forsaken country to rekindle a relationship with this long-lost father. Just as she is leaving, Anna gets a small hint that the reason Marilyn fled in the first place isn’t quite as she was led to believe.
Lieutenant Dan Murphy is a mercenary soldier assisting the Congolese Army in their fight to rid the country of the scourge of communism. He has military training and yet, despite this rough exterior, deep inside Dan is hiding a terrible hurt – one he keeps to himself even though it has been slowly eating him up inside.
It’s not until approximately two-thirds of the way through when readers learn the reason behind his unusual career path, as well as the tenuous connection between the two main characters … maybe I’m a bit slow or hopefully just too caught up in the two separate fascinating storylines up to this point to grab the connection earlier. I think the latter sounds better and far more flattering to both the author and this reviewer!
As the story unfolds, with this knowledge comes a terrible truth coated with pathos and heartbreak and which, just like chocolate sitting beside a hot stove, slowly creeps across the pages and into a reader’s soul. Katherine’s descriptions of the anguish Dan faced during an agonising decision made many years earlier are gut-wrenching and made my heart ache for him. I can only applaud the author’s ability to get inside the soul of this sad event and I found the following paragraphs dripped with emotion and despair:
“When the last dotted line had been filled, Dan stood still, staring down at the ink, the shiny black turning dull as it dried on the paper. The lawyer gathered up the pages, slipping them into his briefcase without delay, snapping the clasp shut. He held out his hand, but Dan just walked away.
In the lobby downstairs there was a stuffed leopard on display beside an ornate hat stand. Dan stopped to look at it, his mind searching for a new place to rest. He wondered if the trophy was a cast-off from Leopard Hall – the ears looks chewed, the coat patchy. There was a cowed look in its glassy eyes. The animal was like a vision of how Dan felt. All the power had gone from his once-lethal body. There was now wire in place of bones, straw standing in for muscle, and just a hollow space where its warm heart had once been.”
The crescendo of suspense during the final few chapters is the perfect culmination to this compelling saga: a story of heartbreak and loss; decades of loneliness never to be regained … each one riddled with misunderstanding and broken dreams; the gut-wrenching dismemberment of misplaced ideals; a flurry of bloody conflicts in this war-torn African nation; and two lonely souls seeking out a future neither one could ever foresee.
This is Africa laid bare in all her beauty and her terror – a sweeping tale, filled with the sounds, smells, and vivid images of this colourful land, like the stifling heat enfolding its residents in a sheen of perspiration and dust. Suited to both male or female readers, Katherine Scholes paints a tangible picture of life in the Congo during the turbulent mid-1960s.
Congo Dawn by Katherine Scholes is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.