White A Novel
White A Novel by Deni Ellis Béchard, published by Milkweed Editions in 2018, is a thought-provoking exploration of complex themes such as privilege, humanitarianism, and racial tensions. This edition spans 302 pages and is presented in English. The narrative follows a journalist assigned to write an exposé on the elusive figure Richmond Hew, leading him on a journey to the Congo, where he confronts his own misconceptions and the intricacies of a corrupt conservation world.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of characters and situations, including a woman named Sola searching for a white orphan girl and an anthropologist who treats orphans as test subjects. The story delves into the lives of charismatic Congolese preachers and street children, revealing their experiences of abandonment and trauma. As the journalist navigates this underground network, he gradually uncovers the layers of his own complicity and the absurdity of American exceptionalism, ultimately connecting the seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive narrative.
Official synopsis Publisher
From the celebrated author of the “ferociously intelligent and intensely gripping” (Phil Klay) Into the Sun comes a subversive, daring, and at times satirical novel exploring privilege, humanitarianism, white supremacy, and the absurdity of American exceptionalism.
Assigned to write an exposé on Richmond Hew, one of the most elusive and corrupt figures in the conservation world, a journalist finds himself on a plane to the Congo, a country he thinks he understands. But when he meets Sola, a woman searching for a rootless white orphan girl who believes herself possessed by a skin-stealing demon, he slowly uncovers a tapestry of corruption and racial tensions generations in the making.
This harrowing search leads him into an underground network of sinners and saints–and straight to the heart of his own complicity. An anthropologist who treats orphans like test subjects. A community of charismatic Congolese preachers. Street children who share accounts of abandonment and sexual abuse. A renowned and revered conservationist who vanishes. And then there is the journalist himself, lost in his own misunderstanding of privilege and the myth of whiteness, and plagued by traumatic memories of his father. At first seemingly unrelated, these disparate elements coalesce one by one into a map of Richmond Hew’s movements.
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