I've just finished Mario Vargas Llosa's fictionalised account of the life of Roger Casement, "El Sueño del celta" - coming out in English in April I think but his Spanish is not at all difficult (if you have reasonable Spanish ). There is a slew of biographies of Casement around, from every point of view - including anti-slavery, gay rights, flawed hero, etc., but Llosa's device enables him to get insode his subject's head, reconstruct conversations or scenes of which there is no record or where there were no witnesses. It is based on the same sort of research as a biography, though it lacks an index, bibliography, glossary or list of dramatis personae which would have helped.
I was aware of the outline of Casement's contribution to Ireland in 1916, and vaguely aware of his work uncovering atrocities in the Belgian Congo rubber trade, but entirely ignorant of the similar work he did in the Peruvian Amazon - this is the best section of the book, IMV. It begins and ends in the condemned cell at Pentonville, and returns there at intervals through the book as Casement receives visitors, reflects on things, etc. A harrowing but worthwhile read.
I was aware of the outline of Casement's contribution to Ireland in 1916, and vaguely aware of his work uncovering atrocities in the Belgian Congo rubber trade, but entirely ignorant of the similar work he did in the Peruvian Amazon - this is the best section of the book, IMV. It begins and ends in the condemned cell at Pentonville, and returns there at intervals through the book as Casement receives visitors, reflects on things, etc. A harrowing but worthwhile read.
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