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Brazzaville Beach
Brazzaville Beach
Jan 14, 2026 3:37 PM

Author:William Boyd,Pippa Bennett-Warner

Brazzaville Beach

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE

On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband John, and his mathematical obsessions, in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps.

But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn't right. That behind Mallabar, and his obsessive work, there lies another, more sinister truth: one that might also help explain Hope's reasons for leaving England . . .

'A brilliant storyteller . . . a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights' Financial Times

'A most extraordinary parable about mankind. Quite unlike anything else I have read' Sunday Express

'Brilliant, daring. A gripping and compulsive story' Herald

'Hilarious and edgy' Sunday Times

© William Boyd 1990 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

A middle-aged film producer, a novelist with writer's block and a glamorous young actress come together to make a Swinging Sixties movie in this jaunty page-turner. But everyone is living a double life. Even names can't be taken on trust. Full of neat phrases and quirkily funny scenes, it's an elating read

—— The Times, Best Paperbacks of 2021

What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel? Trio is immensely readable, its descriptions full of light and colour, its humour spot on, its mood a perfect mix of frolicsome and melancholy

—— Sunday Telegraph

An absorbing novel about lives spiralling out of control and the drastic measures required to right them

—— Economist

The characters are wonderfully written and I loved escaping to the gossipy world of the film set

—— Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month

Boyd keeps the plot racing along, yet for all the twists, the real delight is in William Boyd's wry portrait of a bygone age . . . Boyd's usual sure touch is evident throughout this tender, gently comic work

—— Independent

One of our best contemporary storytellers. . . Trio embraces comedy, tragedy and redemption. It succeeds impressively because of its dramatic, often sensational, revelations

—— Spectator

I am a huge fan of William Boyd and the tender way he writes about the flaws and frailties of his characters. Trio is his best novel in years

—— Red, The Best Books to Read this October

Reading William Boyd's Trio is like shrugging on a worn leather jacket on the first brisk morning of autumn: cosy but cool . . . He has enormous fun with the worlds - and egos - of page and screen

—— The Times

Enormous fun . . . Boyd's characters are vibrant, his prose elegant, comedy excellent: the result is a book that's compassionate and compelling

—— Tatler

Boyd's writing is as fluent as ever but it's the ideas pulsing beneath the surface that distinguish Trio

—— Financial Times

Trio is an intricate set of variations on the idea of alternative selves, well beyond the title's trio, unobtrusively elegant in its formal beauty

—— New Statesman, Books of the Year

Sending an affably satiric shimmer over the ceaseless rewrites, grotesque miscastings and behind-the-scenes chicanery, William Boyd simultaneously explores deeper issues of duplicity and divided personality

—— Sunday Times, Best Fiction Books of the Year

A very funny and touching story of a friendship and a mystery unravelled

—— Woman & Home

Casey Cep’s painstakingly researched book is a gripping account of both the trial and Lee’s obsession with it.

—— Observer

Casey Cep has created a book that’s totally astounding and deeply moving.

—— Stylist

Astounding

—— Emerald Street

Superb, sparklingly intelligent

—— Daily Telegraph

In Furious Hours, her brilliant and gripping account, Casey Cep details and analyses [Harper] Lee’s increasingly desperate efforts to write that second book … Furious Hours is probably the nearest we will get to the book Harper Lee tried so hard to complete. It is a tacit tribute to Harper Lee but even more, an attempt, largely successful, to bring her abandoned project to final fruition … A book of compelling portraits … Cep’s narrative swarms with other characters, all credibly realised in their often cantankerous and eccentric ways … Painstakingly researched and beautifully written.

—— Times Literary Supplement

It’s as gripping as a thriller and as coolly dissected as a forensics report.

—— Robert Doulgas-Fairhurst , The Spectator

The inside scoop on Harper Lee’s long, post-Mockingbird silence. After working with Truman Capote on his true-crime book In Cold Blood, Lee attempted something similar, taking a murderous preacher, the Rev Willie Maxwell, as her subject. Despite years of research, Lee never produced a book – but Cep’s beautifully written offering goes a long way to making up for that. Utterly gripping, this is the ideal Christmas treat for anyone who loves Harper Lee.

—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday Times, Best Literary Books of the Year

An ingeniously structured, beautifully written double mystery

—— The Economist

Fascinating true story

—— The Times

The astonishing account of murders in Alabama and Harper Lee's attempt to unravel the story.

—— Hugo Vickers , The Telegraph

Fascinating ... Riveting.

—— Evening Standard

A glorious book of heart-warming philosophy and heart-rending sadness

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

An excellent novel...thrilling reading...incredibly entertaining

—— Bookgeeks.co.uk

Surely one of the most versatile novelists writing today

—— Daily Express

Vivid, original and always engaging

—— The Times

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart

—— Literary Review

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel

—— Sunday Business Post

For a second time this is one to cherish

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

A Pepysian romp of the first order

—— Independent Radar

Continues in the same superior vein as Restoration… The fusion of such an engrossing character, and the minutiae of another time, remains a marvel

—— Daily Telegraph

In this evocative and beautifully drawn novel of family and loyalty in the face of an uncertain future Tremain continues the story of a wonderfully unique character

—— Hannah Britt , Daily Express

Hugely enjoyable

—— Reader's Digest

Merivel’s hapless charm remains intact in this tour de force of literary technique

—— Sunday Telegraph (Seven)

A sequel that looks back to the earlier novel without ever quite recapturing its spirit is the perfect form in which to evoke that feeling of having to carry on, and of trying to make yourself have fun even with it eventually begins to hurt

—— Colin Burrow , Guardian

A marvelllously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft

—— Good Book Guide
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