In Pointe-Noire, in the small neighbourhood of Voungou, on the family plot where young Michel lives with Maman Pauline and Papa Roger, life goes on. But Michel's everyday cares - lost grocery money, t
“Mabanckou is one of Africa’s liveliest and most original voices, and this novel pulses with energy and invention.”—The Times of London let’s say the boss of the bar Credit Gone West gave me this note
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017It's 1970, and in the People's Republic of Congo a Marxist-Leninist revolution is ushering in a new age. But over at the orphanage on the outskirt
"Written on the twentieth anniversary of James Baldwin's death, Letter to Jimmy is African writer Alain Mabanckou's ode to his literary hero and an effort to place Baldwin's life in context within the
In The Tears of the Black Man, award-winning author Alain Mabanckou explores what it means to be black in the world today. Mabanckou confronts the long and entangled history of Africa, France, and the
A rollicking new novel described as ?Oliver Twist in 1970s Africa” (Les Inrockuptibles) by the Man International Booker Prize finalistIt’s not easy being Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namb
This tale of wild adventure reveals the dashed hopes of Africans living between worlds. When Moki returns to his village from France wearing designer clothes and affecting all the manners of a Frenchm
All human beings, says an African legend, have an animal double. Some doubles are benign, others wicked. This legend comes to life in Alain Mabanckou’s outlandish, surreal, and charmingly nonchalant M
The parameters of Francophone sub-Saharan African literature expanded dramatically during recent years. Twentieth-century African writing was for the most part organized according to the shifting cult
Its title recalls Bret Easton Ellis’s infamous book, but while Ellis’s narrator was a blank slate, African Psycho’s protagonist is a quivering mass of lies, neuroses, and relentless
Set in a fictitious African nation, this novel by the distinguished writer Sony Labou Tansi takes aim at the corruption, degeneracy, violence, and repression of political life in Africa. At the heart
Writers in Translation, established in 2005 and supported by Bloomberg and Arts Council England, champions the best literature from around the world. To mark the programme's tenth anniversary, ten lea
