The Monkey House - Hardcover

Fullerton, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 059304052X ISBN 13: 9780593040522

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1996

Synopsis

In The Monkey House , Sarajevo is a city besieged by the atrocities of war. Stadium walls that once shook with the roar of Olympic crowds have since collapsed under the screams of artillery. Police Superintendent Rosso and the ragtag remains of his Sarajevo police force, however, remain dedicated to preserving what is left of the city's civil order. In their Sisyphean quest to uphold the law, one of their key informants is mysteriously murdered in a narcotics-infected Serb apartment complex called the "Monkey House." If the homicide is proven to be the work of Sarajevo's notorious crime boss, Luka, solving the case could break the black marketeer's grip on the city. But bringing Luka to justice could also drastically change the course of this relentless war and quite possibly lead to the fall of Sarajevo.

For Rosso, a Croat whose Serbian wife is losing a battle with alcoholism and whose Moslem goddaughter may be having an affair with Luka, this case has become a life mission, not only to defeat a formidable enemy and to save his family and city, but also to redeem his own dark and bloody legacy. In The Monkey House the stakes are high for solving a wartime murder, and a young, cocky American journalist named Branson Flett is there to report it all.

The Monkey House navigates a complex web of international politics and propaganda, supplying a ground-level view of the Bosnian conflict through a tale as real and hard as the war itself.

About this title

Review:

Branston Flett is a famous American journalist who comes to wartime Sarajevo with the intent of covering the ethnic conflict. But what he discovers is the netherworld of a city gone mad. A police informant is found drowned in a bathtub of a building that rarely has water. The building is in a Serb enclave detested by the Croats. A Croatian detective with a Serbian wife is suspicious. Meanwhile gunfire, mortar, and artillery ring through the city. People are starving; others are dying. War story, crime thriller, tale of urban decay, The Monkey House is a powerful book.

From the Publisher:

"A first-rate debut thriller, with harrowing detail showing the limits of a memorable man and his ruined city. An impressive first novel from Reuters correspondent Fullerton."
--Kirkus Reviews

"War-torn Sarajevo provides the setting for this gripping, atmospheric thriller in the tradition of le Carré and Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. [An] engaging and timely first novel."
--Publishers Weekly

"With a clarity that is sharp and painful, Fullerton's first novel captures the emotions of small people trapped in a mad war: terror and privation, compassion and Balkan gallows humor. Given his narrative and masterly suspense,[Fullerton] has a very serious future."
--Daily Telegraph

"I wouldn't compare this to Gorky Park; I would compare it to Dante's Inferno. The mystery is why aren't there more books as good as this. The reason is that very few of us have been to places as dark as this, and John Fullerton has."
--Martin Cruz Smith

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 059304052X
• ISBN 13: 9780593040522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 449