The King of Kahel is a story of colonialism, a French child’s fantasy, and 19th century Guinea. Author Tierno Monénembo, little known in the US, won a prestigious French award for this book. Monenembo was exiled from his home country of Guinea and has lived in France since 1973.

The King of Kahel is based (loosely says the book jacket) on the exploits of French explorer, the Viscount Aimee Olivier Sanderval. As a child Sanderval’s tutors exposed him to stories of faraway islands and continents. He had long dreamed of establishing his own kingdom when went to the west African area known as the Fouta Djallon (roughly the uplands of Guinea). The book jacket calls King of Kahel “a jovial Heart of Darkness”, and that is an apt description of about the first third of the book as Sanderval journeys into Fouta Djallon. After many trials and tribulations, he finally reaches an agreement with the tribal leader for a trade agreements and permission to build a railroad.

That success is only the first step. Sanderval must return to France and try to convince the government to recognize his enterprise. Battling the French bureaucracy isn’t easy. Sanderval finally returns to Fouta Djallon, but just when it seems he has moved closer to his goal, conditions change drastically. The French army marches in and ironically Sanderval’s dream evaporates in a miasma of colonial power.

The book has its shortcomings – in his last trip he takes his Georges along, but Georges disappears from the story for long stretches and it’s not clear why. Sanderval evokes strong feelings (positive and negative) among the book’s characters, but again it is not always clear why some of the characters.

On the whole, though the book is a wonderful feat of imagination. Also consider: The King of Kahel tells the story of a French colonial adventure from the white man’s perspective – by an African author exiled in France. Let’s hope for more translations of Tierno Monénembo’s work. ( )

The King of Kahel is the inaugural book in Amazon's new publishing imprint, AmazonCrossing, which publishes foreign works in original English translation. The author, Tierno Monénembo, is from Guinea and lives in France, and his novel won the 2008 Prix Renaudot. It is a good pick for AmazonCrossing's premier novel.

During the 1880s French colonial aspirations reached an apex. One little known colonialist at the time was a wealthy French businessman by the name of Aime Olivier de Sanderval. Having made his fortune in the manufacturing industry in France, he aspired to be a real aristocrat, no less than a King. He had a life long interest in Africa from childhood, so he traveled to the mountain highlands of Guinea to a place called Futa Jalon, a geographically unique and beautiful region which has been called the Switzerland of West Africa. The tribes who lived there were fractured and warlike. Through cunning and mostly luck, Sanderval was able to obtain a piece of land over which he became King, complete with his own native army and minted coins. Then things started to go wrong.

The novel has an authentic feel of a 19th century retelling, based as it is on a true story, but with the sly irony of a post-colonial perspective which results a humorous image of Sanderval as a bumbling fool who succeeds despite himself, a reputation well deserved. The jacket compares his story to Heart of Darkness but that's only superficially true (both are set in Africa), it's really more in the spirit of The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling, another story of bumbling fools with grand designs and limited capabilities.

Since Monenembo follows real history, the plot is a little complex and not quite novelistic, there is a lot of subterfuge and politics. It's certainly readable by anyone, and well written, but it's not an entirely easy read, being steeped in 19th century French history and Guinean place and people names, though these things attracted me to it. The reader will get much more out of it with GoogleEarth (which has pictures of places and even buildings mentioned) and a Guinean encyclopedia would help. But this is why I enjoy novels in translation, in particular by authors who are from the country in question, it is more rewarding to learn about a place and history through stories.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2010 cc-by-nd ( )