Gregoire Nakobomayo has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine. However, the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation. Luckily, he has a mentor to call on, the far more accomplished serial killer Angoualima. The fact that he is dead doesn't prevent Gregoire from talking with him.
The "heart-breaking" (New York Times Book Review), rollicking, award-winning novel that has been described as "Oliver Twist in 1970s Africa" (Les Inrockuptibles) "One of the most compelling books you'll read in any language this year." —Rolling Stone Winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize Shortlisted for the Albertine Prize Shortlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize Greeted with wildly enthusiastic reviews on publication, Alain Mabanckou's riotous novel begins in an orphanage in 1970s Congo-Brazza... continue
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 greater African diaspora. Beginning with a chance encounter with a beggar wandering along a Santa Monica beach—a man whose ragged clothes and unsteady gait remind the author of a character out of one of James Baldwin’s novels— Mabanckou uses his own experiences as an African living in the US as a launching pad to take readers on a fascinating tour of James Baldwin’s life. As Mabanckou reads Baldwi... continue
Vaso Roto es un cliente asiduo del Crédito se Fue de Viaje, un mugriento bar congolés. Un día, el propietario le propone escribir historias heroico-cómicas de los asiduos al bar, una tropa de lisiados de vidas pintorescas. En esta farsa metafísica, donde lo sublime se mezcla con lo grotesco, Alain Mabanckou, autor originario de Congo-Brazzaville galardonado con el Premio Renaudot, nos ofrece un retrato truculento de un África extraña e inesperada. Esta novela, pionera en demoler el mito de que todos los males de los estados africanos se deben a las políticas colonialistas, propone un cambio de... continue