I need your help with something tiny. In a way, I think this could be a cool experiment, to see if people actually can figure this out. I'm in a creative writing workshop here. A few weeks ago, I met with the instructor and she recommended I read a certain work of fiction. I have to read it by next week. I've forgotten about it. In fact, I've forgotten the name of the book and the author. Here's what I remember: it's about something in Africa, maybe the Congo, maybe the Serengeti. It's about some sort of trip or journey. It may be about a king, or about bones. Those two words are sticking in my head, but I can't remember. I think the Africa reference is in the name of the book. I think it takes place at some point in the past, either about 100 years ago, or much much farther back. It's a work of fiction, and apparently a well-written work of fiction. The author has a book coming out soon that is about something that sounded more interesting to me, maybe about intelligence gathering, but that's just a guess. But that book isn't out yet. I want to say the author's last name begins with an H, but I'm not certain.

E-mail me if you have any idea what I might be talking about. Thanks. :) We'll see if this is easier than just asking the instructor to remind me what the book was. Thanks much.

UPDATE: Two people wrote back and suggested I was looking for "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. One person suggested "Henderson the Rain King" by Saul Bellow. Somehow, those two suggestions, while neither sounded like the right one, made me remember the name of the book: "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild. The Amazon page is here. I was right that it was about the Congo, about 100 years ago, a King, and the author's name began with an H. I'll let you know if I think it's any good after I read it.