The peculiar and moving story of a Congolese boy's coming-of-age amid the political strife of postcolonial Congo

His nickname is Matapari, which means "trouble." He is an African child of the '90s--brilliant, mischievous, postcolonial, postmodern-caught in the crossfire of a chaotically liberated African country. Matapari grows up in a world of talking drums, the Internet, and satellite TV, a world of dictators who remake themselves as democrats overnight.

His uncle is a stooge for the dictator; his father is a scholarly recluse obsessed with proving that blacks played key roles in Western history. Matapari is a young man in the middle--but the shrewdness and wit with which he tells his often riotously funny story set him apart from his relatives and countrymen.

Emmanuel Dongala uses the ingenious viewpoint of a child to show up the telltale world of adults--and to show how one preserves one's independence in a corrupt and violent society.