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That Devil's Madness
In 1896 Louis and his father, seduced by the allure of North Africa, travel to Algeria in search of a better life. There, Louis befriends Imez, a Berber boy, and the two become firm friends. They grow and prosper, and become like brothers.
Years later, Nicolette, an Australian photojournalist, is drawn to cover the illness and eventual death of Algerian President Boumedienne. She sees it as an opportunity to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps, make her mark, and restore the bonds of the past. But the rules have changed – will the bonds that once existed be sufficient for her to survive?
That Devil’s Madness tells of the often heart-rending tensions that exist between idealism and duty, between friendship and loyalty to one’s country – of the struggle for freedom, dignity and respect. Dramatic, honest and shockingly relevant to today’s world situation, the novel is driven by finely crafted characters, exquisite prose and razor-sharp drama and mystery.
"A kind of Quiet American set in Algiers: a unique, densely tactile novel in which the various strands of story-DNA – part multi-generational family saga, part Greene-land war-zone, part Camus-like moral maze – entwine with the DNA of its characters – pieds noirs, Berbers, Australians – in a formal, satisfying helix."
[Peter Goldsworthy, author of Maestro, Three Dog Night and His Stupid Boyhood]
Years later, Nicolette, an Australian photojournalist, is drawn to cover the illness and eventual death of Algerian President Boumedienne. She sees it as an opportunity to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps, make her mark, and restore the bonds of the past. But the rules have changed – will the bonds that once existed be sufficient for her to survive?
That Devil’s Madness tells of the often heart-rending tensions that exist between idealism and duty, between friendship and loyalty to one’s country – of the struggle for freedom, dignity and respect. Dramatic, honest and shockingly relevant to today’s world situation, the novel is driven by finely crafted characters, exquisite prose and razor-sharp drama and mystery.
"A kind of Quiet American set in Algiers: a unique, densely tactile novel in which the various strands of story-DNA – part multi-generational family saga, part Greene-land war-zone, part Camus-like moral maze – entwine with the DNA of its characters – pieds noirs, Berbers, Australians – in a formal, satisfying helix."
[Peter Goldsworthy, author of Maestro, Three Dog Night and His Stupid Boyhood]
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
402 people want to read
About the author
Dominique Wilson
3 books21 followersDominique Wilson was born in Algiers to French parents. She grew up in a country torn by civil war, until she and her family fled to Australia. Her short stories have been published nationally and read on ABC Radio, and one of her short stories was made into a short film. She was founding Managing Editor of Wet Ink: the magazine of new writing, and Chair of the Adelaide branch of International PEN. She holds a Masters and a PhD in Creative Writing, for which she won the University Doctoral Research Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 24, 2015
The art of good historical fiction is in the adeptness of which the author sneaks in the history lesson while the reader is mesmerized by the tale. Wilson does this beautifully. The French occupation of Algeria and the subsequent struggle for independence was something I knew nothing about which is one reason I probably would not have chosen to read this book, if not for the fact that I love the author’s previous work, The Yellow Pages, and I was given this book as a gift.
That Devil’s Madness alternates between two time periods but the story is seamless. In classic Wilson style, she sprints through the early history—but for those impatient readers I say don't despair—the book quickly latches onto the main character’s story. Nicolette’s relationships are brought to fruition and as she finds herself searching for her past the story takes a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat, turn—until you flip the last page and think: academy-award movie script?
But it’s not just a spellbinding story. Between subtle comments on religion such as, “More out of long forgotten habit than faith, [she] dipped two fingers in the holy water of the font,” and fascinating descriptions of customs and traditions, Wilson weaves a tale of friendship, betrayal, love and atrocity. My absolute favorite line—though there are many to choose from: “Independence isn’t the same as freedom . . .” My only complaint is that I’ve finished the book and now have to wait, who knows how long, for the next Wilson saga.
Wilson's books are difficult to find in the American market but these two sites may be helpful.
Transit Lounge Publishing: http://transitlounge.com.au/shop/that...
Booktopia: http://www.booktopia.com.au/that-devi...
That Devil’s Madness alternates between two time periods but the story is seamless. In classic Wilson style, she sprints through the early history—but for those impatient readers I say don't despair—the book quickly latches onto the main character’s story. Nicolette’s relationships are brought to fruition and as she finds herself searching for her past the story takes a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat, turn—until you flip the last page and think: academy-award movie script?
But it’s not just a spellbinding story. Between subtle comments on religion such as, “More out of long forgotten habit than faith, [she] dipped two fingers in the holy water of the font,” and fascinating descriptions of customs and traditions, Wilson weaves a tale of friendship, betrayal, love and atrocity. My absolute favorite line—though there are many to choose from: “Independence isn’t the same as freedom . . .” My only complaint is that I’ve finished the book and now have to wait, who knows how long, for the next Wilson saga.
Wilson's books are difficult to find in the American market but these two sites may be helpful.
Transit Lounge Publishing: http://transitlounge.com.au/shop/that...
Booktopia: http://www.booktopia.com.au/that-devi...
January 19, 2016
That Devil’s Madness is the second novel of Dominique Wilson, who wrote The Yellow Papers , a book I really liked. (See my review - The Yellow Papers). This book is even better, signalling to me that Dominique Wilson is an author to follow.
It’s a fascinating novel, set mostly in North African Algeria, formerly a French colony until its post-war independence. It begins in 1896 when Marius de Dercou from Sablières in France takes up the opportunity to acquire land in the colony, taking his son Louis with him. There, starting with almost nothing, he makes a successful new life for himself, and significantly, Louis develops a strong friendship with a local Tuareg boy called Imez.
Awareness of and respect for the dispossessed indigenous people is a strong theme in the novel. En route to his destination Marius is given plenty of advice about how to get started by the French captain of his escort and by Bertin, the local military administrator of Aïn Azel. Their knowledge of the relative merits of the local Arabs, Turks and Berbers are marked by complacent cultural assumptions and an inherent sense of European superiority.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2016/01/17/th...
It’s a fascinating novel, set mostly in North African Algeria, formerly a French colony until its post-war independence. It begins in 1896 when Marius de Dercou from Sablières in France takes up the opportunity to acquire land in the colony, taking his son Louis with him. There, starting with almost nothing, he makes a successful new life for himself, and significantly, Louis develops a strong friendship with a local Tuareg boy called Imez.
Awareness of and respect for the dispossessed indigenous people is a strong theme in the novel. En route to his destination Marius is given plenty of advice about how to get started by the French captain of his escort and by Bertin, the local military administrator of Aïn Azel. Their knowledge of the relative merits of the local Arabs, Turks and Berbers are marked by complacent cultural assumptions and an inherent sense of European superiority.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2016/01/17/th...
March 12, 2016
First of all I want to thank Dominique Wilson for this book she gave to me as a giveaway.
This was an amazing trip in Algeria ! I liked it very much !
This was an amazing trip in Algeria ! I liked it very much !
November 1, 2017
The story had the capacity to be interesting but from the very first chapter, aspects of the structure and the narrative just didn't work. There can be no mystery when pages and pages of unecessary dialogue are used to create what's already become a not so well disguised plot line. There was a quote on the cover comparing this to "The Quiet American" but I'm afraid that's deeply overestimating this piece of fiction. While there were some interesting characters, there was just too much that wasn't believable.
June 12, 2016
Confession time: I know very little about Algeria, besides some bits on TV and where to find it on a map. I like to learn more about places by reading (particularly fiction) so That Devil’s Madness intrigued me. I wasn’t expecting an incredibly good story that had me on the edge of my seat reading into the night. The story combines powerful emotion with history, loyalty and reflection on the past.
Initially the story begins in two separate narratives, linked by family. Louis is a boy leaving poverty in France for the wide expanses of Algeria with his father in 1896. Algeria is a whole new world with space, sand and opportunity. Louis and his father Marcus set about building a farm and livelihood far away from the capital of Algiers. They become friends with the Berbers, a friendship that will last for generations until it is brutally severed in the unrest post World War II. It’s a fascinating story, filled with detail and politics that only become more complex as time goes on.
The second narrative opens in Australia in the late 1960s as Nicolette moves to the country with her husband and child. What happens next is brutal and shocking. Later, we meet her again as an emerging photojournalist, wanting to cover the illness of President Boumedienne in Algeria. Determined to do it, Nicolette takes her holiday leave and meets up with Steven, a friend of a colleague and experienced journalist. He’s there to stop Nicolette from making rookie mistakes and believing Algeria is the same place that she left as a child…but both of them are more than what they appear.
Eventually, the two narratives come together. I was sad to leave Louis’ story but Nicolette’s thread linked the missing pieces and explained why things had become what they did. The two narratives are expertly interwoven, Wilson has the knack of knowing at the right moment when to switch and when to offer a titbit from the past that explains why the modern characters are acting the way they do. As for the ending, it was shocking and unexpected to me but I really admire Wilson for doing what she did. That kind of explosive ending takes guts and resulted in the story packing an even greater punch in my memory. (While I say it was unexpected, it did fit in perfectly with how the characters were portrayed throughout the book. It fit in with their motives and added to the allure of Algeria as a place of where nothing is as it seems).
That Devil’s Madness is a captivating story that engaged me fully – the characters were intriguing and the story of Algeria fascinated me in a way that no history book does. It’s well written and definitely worth a read. I know literary fiction can sometimes be tainted with the ‘dull’ tag but this novel defies the stereotypes and combines skilled writing with a fast paced storyline that also reflects on history, religion, freedom and duty.
Thank you to Transit Lounge for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Initially the story begins in two separate narratives, linked by family. Louis is a boy leaving poverty in France for the wide expanses of Algeria with his father in 1896. Algeria is a whole new world with space, sand and opportunity. Louis and his father Marcus set about building a farm and livelihood far away from the capital of Algiers. They become friends with the Berbers, a friendship that will last for generations until it is brutally severed in the unrest post World War II. It’s a fascinating story, filled with detail and politics that only become more complex as time goes on.
The second narrative opens in Australia in the late 1960s as Nicolette moves to the country with her husband and child. What happens next is brutal and shocking. Later, we meet her again as an emerging photojournalist, wanting to cover the illness of President Boumedienne in Algeria. Determined to do it, Nicolette takes her holiday leave and meets up with Steven, a friend of a colleague and experienced journalist. He’s there to stop Nicolette from making rookie mistakes and believing Algeria is the same place that she left as a child…but both of them are more than what they appear.
Eventually, the two narratives come together. I was sad to leave Louis’ story but Nicolette’s thread linked the missing pieces and explained why things had become what they did. The two narratives are expertly interwoven, Wilson has the knack of knowing at the right moment when to switch and when to offer a titbit from the past that explains why the modern characters are acting the way they do. As for the ending, it was shocking and unexpected to me but I really admire Wilson for doing what she did. That kind of explosive ending takes guts and resulted in the story packing an even greater punch in my memory. (While I say it was unexpected, it did fit in perfectly with how the characters were portrayed throughout the book. It fit in with their motives and added to the allure of Algeria as a place of where nothing is as it seems).
That Devil’s Madness is a captivating story that engaged me fully – the characters were intriguing and the story of Algeria fascinated me in a way that no history book does. It’s well written and definitely worth a read. I know literary fiction can sometimes be tainted with the ‘dull’ tag but this novel defies the stereotypes and combines skilled writing with a fast paced storyline that also reflects on history, religion, freedom and duty.
Thank you to Transit Lounge for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
July 27, 2016
The structure of That Devil’s Madness by Dominique Wilson is almost a double helix, seeming parallel narratives of France and Algeria from the late 19th century onwards, and Australia and Algeria in the 1960s. It follows the fates of four generations of French-Algerian-Australian immigrants and Algerian Berbers, narratives which come together in a thriller-like denouement.
The main point of view character is a novice photo-journalist, Nicolette de Dercou, who as a child immigrated to Australia from Algeria with her mother and grandfather, and who returns there to re-connect with childhood friends and cover the news of the president’s imminent death. Nicolette gets caught up in turbulent events as Berbers fight for liberation from the oppression they have suffered since Algeria’s independence from France after World War Two, a historical struggle illuminated by the other narrative which follows Nicolette’s great-grandfather from France to Algeria and her grandfather from Algeria to Australia.
This story interests me on numerous levels. It illuminates the complexity of post-colonialism and Christian-Muslim relations in North Africa; it gives a historical context for present-day political unrest, dissatisfaction with injustice and the root causes of terrorism; and it acts as a reminder for Australian readers of the tentativeness of our claims to sovereignty over Indigenous lands, and the historical and cultural blindness that attends our attitudes to “boat people”.
The novel also highlights the technical difficulty of wielding two disparate narratives. The risk is that the reader might temporarily lose interest at the point of changeover – not for lack of engagement, but because of their investment with the narrative thread already underway. Wilson manages to hold the reader’s attention in both stories until they come together in a powerful ending: no mean feat.
The main point of view character is a novice photo-journalist, Nicolette de Dercou, who as a child immigrated to Australia from Algeria with her mother and grandfather, and who returns there to re-connect with childhood friends and cover the news of the president’s imminent death. Nicolette gets caught up in turbulent events as Berbers fight for liberation from the oppression they have suffered since Algeria’s independence from France after World War Two, a historical struggle illuminated by the other narrative which follows Nicolette’s great-grandfather from France to Algeria and her grandfather from Algeria to Australia.
This story interests me on numerous levels. It illuminates the complexity of post-colonialism and Christian-Muslim relations in North Africa; it gives a historical context for present-day political unrest, dissatisfaction with injustice and the root causes of terrorism; and it acts as a reminder for Australian readers of the tentativeness of our claims to sovereignty over Indigenous lands, and the historical and cultural blindness that attends our attitudes to “boat people”.
The novel also highlights the technical difficulty of wielding two disparate narratives. The risk is that the reader might temporarily lose interest at the point of changeover – not for lack of engagement, but because of their investment with the narrative thread already underway. Wilson manages to hold the reader’s attention in both stories until they come together in a powerful ending: no mean feat.
January 13, 2016
Wow! What a timely read.
The structure of That Devil's Madness is almost a double helix, seeming parallel narratives of France and Algeria from the late 19th century onwards, and Australia and Algeria in the 1960s. It follows the fates of four generations of French-Algerian-Australian immigrants and Algerian Berbers, narratives which come together in a thriller-like denouement.
The main point of view character is a novice photo-journalist, Nicolette de Dercou, who as a child immigrated to Australia from Algeria with her mother and grandfather, and who returns there to re-connect with childhood friends and cover the news of the president's death. Nicolette gets caught up in turbulent events as Berbers fight for liberation from the oppression they have suffered since Algeria's independence from France after World War Two, a historical struggle illuminated by the other narrative which follows Nicolette's great-grandfather from France to Algeria and her grandfather from Algeria to Australia.
This story interests me on numerous levels. It illuminates the complexity of post-colonialism and Christian-Muslim relations in North Africa; it gives a historical context for present-day political unrest, dissatisfaction with injustice and the root causes of terrorism; and it acts as a reminder for Australian readers of the tentativeness of our claims to sovereignty over Indigenous lands, and the historical and cultural blindness that attends our attitudes to "boat people".
The novel also highlights the technical difficulty of wielding two disparate narratives. The risk is that the reader might temporarily lose interest at the point of changeover - not for lack of engagement, but because of their investment with the narrative thread already underway. Wilson manages to hold the reader's attention in both stories until they come together in a powerful ending: no mean feat!
The structure of That Devil's Madness is almost a double helix, seeming parallel narratives of France and Algeria from the late 19th century onwards, and Australia and Algeria in the 1960s. It follows the fates of four generations of French-Algerian-Australian immigrants and Algerian Berbers, narratives which come together in a thriller-like denouement.
The main point of view character is a novice photo-journalist, Nicolette de Dercou, who as a child immigrated to Australia from Algeria with her mother and grandfather, and who returns there to re-connect with childhood friends and cover the news of the president's death. Nicolette gets caught up in turbulent events as Berbers fight for liberation from the oppression they have suffered since Algeria's independence from France after World War Two, a historical struggle illuminated by the other narrative which follows Nicolette's great-grandfather from France to Algeria and her grandfather from Algeria to Australia.
This story interests me on numerous levels. It illuminates the complexity of post-colonialism and Christian-Muslim relations in North Africa; it gives a historical context for present-day political unrest, dissatisfaction with injustice and the root causes of terrorism; and it acts as a reminder for Australian readers of the tentativeness of our claims to sovereignty over Indigenous lands, and the historical and cultural blindness that attends our attitudes to "boat people".
The novel also highlights the technical difficulty of wielding two disparate narratives. The risk is that the reader might temporarily lose interest at the point of changeover - not for lack of engagement, but because of their investment with the narrative thread already underway. Wilson manages to hold the reader's attention in both stories until they come together in a powerful ending: no mean feat!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews