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Lit with humor, full of African birdsong and told with great narrative force, No Mercy is the magnum opus of "probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language," as Bill Bryson wrote in Outside, "and certainly the most daring." Redmond OHanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer--an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency--he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the Peoples Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake.The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating animals: eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samalı, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omnipresent too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region. An elegant, disturbing and deeply compassionate evocation of a vanishing world, extraordinary in its depth, scope and range of characters, No Mercy is destined to become a landmark work of travel, adventure and natural history. A quest for the meaning of magic and the purpose of religion, and a celebration of the comforts and mysteries of science, it is also--and above all--a powerful guide to the humanity that prevails even in the very heart of darkness.

"[A] twisted but mirthful Conradian adventure....O'Hanlon's staggering knowledge of the region's flora and fauna, in addition to his considerable descriptive skills, adds a further dimension to this casually wacky (and occasionally very sobering) account. As travel yarn, social commentary, zoological handbook, and snappy satire, O'Hanlon's book resists easy categorization....[D]efinitely a trip worth taking."

Kirkus, 01/15/1997

"Those who prefer O'Hanlon to be a sort of journeyman John Cleese will be disappointed. 'Congo Journey' is not a funny book. If it is about any one thing, it's about fear: fear of God (or a higher power), fear of yourself and, most of all, fear of black Africa and what can happen to you there....In between the bouts of terror are rich observations on natural history, ornithology, pygmy life, sorcery, magic and African ritual....'Congo Journey' is a marvelous read."

Fiammetta Rocco, Literary Review, December 1996

No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo: Search Results