A Burnt-Out Case

Querry, a famous architect who has lost his faith and his interest in life, travels deep into the Congo to a leprosy hospital run by a religious community. He hopes to disappear and be left alone. The doctor and priests there treat him simply as a useful man, but his past reputation follows him, and a local journalist and others start to make demands. The novel is a quiet study of emptiness, vocation and the wish to be unknown.