The City Of Invention

From the opening sentence, 'We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle,' I was gripped by this witty and poignant and dramatic account of a blinkered missionary and his long-suffering family in the Belgian Congo in 1959. I was impressed by the skillful way the author handled the different voices (the story is told from five different perspectives), the interweaving of the political and personal narratives, the level of observation and the use of detail. This book has stayed with me.