Johnny Mad Dog.

* Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala (translated from French by Maria Louise Ascher) Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 2005 $24, ISBN 0-374-17995-6

In this novel, Dongala, a chemist, university professor and award-winning novelist who left his home in the Congo Republic during a massive civil war, looks at modern-day genocide through the eyes of two Congolese teenagers. Johnny and Laokole.

We first meet Laokole as she prepares to leave her home before rebel troops arrive. Laokole, a 16-year-old student whose dreams of becoming an engineer are offset by the reality of keeping her wounded mother and little brother alive, is as innocent as her circumstances allow her to be, but she is mindful of the threats posed by "freedom fighters" who routinely destroy the lives and property they are claiming to protect.

Johnny "Mad Dog" is a 16-year-old soldier whose frequent name changes reflect his desperate desire to prove his manhood, his superiority to others and to earn the fear and respect of his comrades. He is, technically, a child, but an unpredictable and violent one--without limits or any real sense of what is right or wrong. As he tells Laokole "I am not a murderer.... I fight wars! In war, you kill, you burn buildings, you rape women. That's normal ... killing is natural. But that doesn't mean I'm a common murderer!"

In the end, Johnny's need to feel important proves to be his downfall and Laokole emerges as a survivor--but at a terrible cost. Dongala's writing is clear, powerful, ironic, occasionally hyperbolic and exceptionally vivid. He draws the reader into a world that may seem foreign on the surface, but the minds and the hearts of his characters are hauntingly familiar.

Johnny Mad Dog is graphic in its description of wartime atrocities and a difficult read, if only because it is inspired by real events. It is also a rare and important work in that it explores the lives of people who have been largely ignored by the outside world. With this latest offering, Dongala opens our eyes to the stories that have always been there, for anyone who cares to look.

Denise Simon is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to BIBR.