Finalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2015
Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, at the age of twenty-two, not to
return until a quarter of a century later. When at last he comes home
to Pointe-Noire, a bustling port town on Congo's south-eastern coast,
he finds a country that in some ways has changed beyond recognition:
the cinema where, as a child, Mabanckou gorged on glamorous American
culture has become a Pentecostal temple, and his secondary school has
been re-named in honour of a previously despised colonial ruler.
But many things remain unchanged, not least the swirling mythology of
Congolese culture which still informs everyday life in Pointe-Noire.
Mabanckou though, now a decorated French-Congolese writer and esteemed
professor at UCLA, finds he can only look on as an outsider at the
place where he grew up. As he delves into his childhood, into the life
of his departed mother and into the strange mix of belonging and
absence that informs his return to Congo, Mabanckou slowly builds a
stirring exploration of the way home never leaves us, however long ago
we left home.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781782830382
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Serpent's tail
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter