|
Ahmadou Kourouma, translated by Nidra Poller |
MONNEW | ||
MONNEW
LOW
/ OUT OF STOCK |
A novel as rich in natural resources as the African continent, Monnew
shines with the gold of poetic comedy and plunges into the quagmire of the
Africa tragedy.
“…one of the foundation stones of modern African fiction.” “Sneaks up on you like a masterpiece.… I am aware of no other novel
that so richly evokes what colonialism felt like to its African victims.” “This has to be among the three or four finest novels ever to explore
the devastating effects of colonialism.” Ahmadou Kourouma’s long-awaited novel — hailed by critics as “a major event in the history of French-language African literature” and “a masterpiece of literary creation” — tells the story of Djigui Keita, king of fictional Soba. Relying on ancestral magic, faith in Allah, and baked-mud fortifications, Djigui finds himself powerless in the face of oncoming French colonial troops and falls into the fateful politics of conciliation, compromise, and betrayal that still pervades post-colonial Africa. |
||
|
AHMADOU KOUROUMA, the eldest son of a distinguished Malinke family, was born in 1927 in Ivory Coast. He was forced to leave the country in 1963, falsely accused of participating in a "conspiracy." Determined to speak out against the betrayal of legitimate African aspirations at the dawn of independence, Kourouma was drawn into an experiment in fiction, his first novel, The Suns of Independence. The publication of Monné, outrages ed défis confirmed his reputation as one of the foremost writers of his generation. He returned to Ivory Coast in 1992.
NIDRA POLLER was born in Pennsylvania and has lived in Paris since 1972. Her translations include works by such authors as Michael McClure and Nathalia Ginzburg. She has also translated for film, including work by Jean-Luc Godard and Suleymane Cissé. |
||