The Villain's Dance

‘Mujila’s frenetic energy is captured in rapturous language by Roland Glasser, translating from the French. Recalling the gritty, exuberant novels of the South African Zakes Mda and the Congolese Alain Mabanckou, Mujila has brought to life a feverish tale of Africa’s underclass, whose demands – like the author’s – are hard to resist.’ New York Times

‘Mujila’s virtuosic narrative shifts, feverish magical realism, and dizzying chronological leaps make for an intoxicating reading experience. This complex tale bears exquisite fruit.’ Publishers Weekly

‘Poetic and inventive, Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s The Villain’s Dance sees — and mourns — the Angola that could have been.’ Eric Mayrhofer, Independent Book Review

‘Fiston Mwanza Mujila opens the doors of an effervescent Africa, one devastated by misery, but incredibly fresh and in which the dance is some sort of metamorphosis and Fiston's language, jazzy and acid, becomes magical.’ Page des Libraires

‘Mujila’s powerful imagination, humour and creative use of language shine through . . . The people depicted display verve and ingenuity, but also violence and amorality, reflecting the flamboyance, brutality and corruption of the Mobutu regime and its disastrous effects on Zairian society … But this is no moral treatise. The Villain’s Dance is a dazzling impression of a teeming scene as hedonistic and edgy as the dancefloor at the Mambo de la Fête.’ Estelle Shinbone, Times Literary Supplement

‘Mujila’s proclivity for cataloguing makes for a colourful reading experience. Roland Glasser’s rich translation does justice to this style, preserving the novel’s wit and word-play.’ Lina Nass, New Internationalist

‘A raucous and fevered novel, full of magical realism and vivid characterisation, musical with the strains of mambo and jazz, propulsive and violent.’ Catherine Taylor, Irish Times