Despite having published more than 40 books, JMG Le Clézio remains an enigma for most English-speaking readers.
With the film of his novel released this week, Giles Foden describes the challenge of bringing a tyrant to life.
It’s nowhere near Italy and there’s nothing sinister about it. Mafia Island is 120km south of Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital. It offers an alternative to Zanzibar to those besotted with the east African coast. <i>Escape</i> explores a little-known paradise in east Africa.
I’ll be glad when he goes, not least because I won’t have to write about him any more. But it’s been a fine romance. It all began on my parents’ verandah in Mbarara, western Uganda. The year was 1990.