David Diop

Selected by students across France to win the the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War. Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land. Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

A Novel

At Night All Blood Is Black

WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction "Astonishingly good." —Lily Meyer, NPR "So incantatory and visceral I don’t think I’ll ever forget it." —Ali Smith, The Guardian | Best Books of 2020 One of The Wall Street Journal's 11 best books of the fall | One of The A.V. Club's fifteen best books of 2020 |A Sunday Times best book of the year Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War. Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land. Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

From the author of the International Booker Prize-winning At Night All Blood is Black: a moving and immersive adventure story set in eighteenth century Senegal __________ 'I read Beyond the Door of No Return with pleasure and admiration. David Diop has opened up a new way of thinking about the eighteenth century and its hideous cruelties' Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Afterlives 'Stunningly realized and written in exquisite prose, Beyond the Door of No Return is a love story, an adventure tale, and an unflinching examination of the unexpected ways that colonialism and greed ravaged everyone it touched, European and African. It is above all else, a spellbinding novel about the high price of betrayal-of others, and oneself' Maaza Mengiste, Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Shadow King 'At once melancholy and luminous' Le Monde __________ Paris, 1806. Michel Adanson is dying. The last word to escape his lips is a woman's name: Maram. Who was she? Why, in the course of his long life, has he never spoken of her before? As Adanson's daughter sorts through his things, she discovers a notebook. It reveals a secret history both fantastical and terrible, of his time as a young botanist travelling in Senegal. How Adanson first heard of the 'revenant': a young woman of noble birth, abducted and sold into slavery across the seas, who then did the impossible-she came back, to live in hiding. How he became obsessed with finding her, embarking on an odyssey that would lead to danger and destruction. How a man who longed to solve the mysteries of nature instead found himself faced with the uncontrollable impulses of the human heart. Tragic and tender, alive with feeling, this is a story of adventure, revenge and impossible desires, one which subverts our every expectation about who we are and who we love. __________ Praise for At Night All Blood is Black 'So incantatory and visceral I don't think I'll ever forget it' - Ali Smith, Guardian 'More than a century after World War I, a great new African writer [has written] a spare yet extraordinary novel about this bloody stain on human history' - Chigozie Obioma, New York Times Book Review 'An extraordinary novel, full of sadness, rage and beauty' Sarah Waters

Beyond The Door of No Return

"Un matin de la Grande Guerre, le capitaine Armand siffle l?attaque contre l?ennemi allemand. Les soldats s?élancent. Dans leurs rangs, Alfa Ndiaye et Mademba Diop, deux tirailleurs sénégalais parmi tous ceux qui se battent alors sous le drapeau français. Quelques mètres après avoir jailli de la tranchée, Mademba tombe, blessé à mort, sous les yeux d?Alfa, son ami d?enfance, son plus que frère. Alfa se retrouve seul dans la folie du grand massacre, sa raison s?enfuit. Lui, le paysan d?Afrique, va distribuer la mort sur cette terre sans nom. Détaché de tout, y compris de lui-même, il répand sa propre violence, sème l?effroi. Au point d?effrayer ses camarades. Son évacuation à l?Arrière est le prélude à une remémoration de son passé en Afrique, tout un monde à la fois perdu et ressuscité dont la convocation fait figure d?ultime et splendide résistance à la première boucherie de l?ère moderne."--Page 4 de la couverture.

roman

Frère d'âme

Gece Tüm Kanlar Karadir

De Noite Todo o Sangue É Negro

"La porte du voyage sans retour" est le surnom donné à l'île de Gorée, d'où sont partis des millions d'Africains au temps de la traite des Noirs. C'est dans ce qui est en 1750 une concession française qu'un jeune homme débarque, venu au Sénégal pour étudier la flore locale. Botaniste, il caresse le rêve d'établir une encyclopédie universelle du vivant, en un siècle où l'heure est aux Lumières. Lorsqu'il a vent de l'histoire d'une jeune Africaine promise à l'esclavage et qui serait parvenue à s'évader, trouvant refuge quelque part aux confins de la terre sénégalaise, son voyage et son destin basculent dans la quête obstinée de cette femme perdue qui a laissé derrière elle mille pistes et autant de légendes.[4e de couverture].

La porte du voyage sans retour

Sam Taylor

Door of No Return

Bratnia dusza

Več kot brat

Tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog neemt een Senegalese scherpschutter in dienst van het Franse leger uit schuldgevoel wraak op de dood van zijn vriend die hij niet heeft kunnen redden.

Meer dan een broer

De jonge botanicus Michel Adanson reist in 1750 af naar Senegal om de lokale flora te bestuderen. De Fransman bereidt zich voor op een tocht door het oerwoud, langs stammen die een taal spreken die hij niet beheerst, en waar tropische ziektes op de loer liggen. Maar als hij het eiland Gorée bezoekt, doet hij een ontdekking: deze plek van aankomst is voor miljoenen Afrikaanse tot slaaf gemaakten een plek van vertrek, zonder terugkeer. Als hij hoort over Maram, een jonge vrouw die vanuit Gorée wist te ontsnappen naar het vasteland van Senegal, verandert zijn plan. De reis wordt een zoektocht naar de talloze sporen en legendes die deze vrouw heeft achtergelaten. In plaats van aan zijn onderzoek te werken, schrijft hij in zijn notitieboekjes over de vriendschap met zijn gids Ndiak, over zijn twijfels aan de superioriteit van het Verlichte Europa, en over de prachtige Maram, die haar toekomst in eigen hand nam. Net als in het bekroonde Meer dan een broer belicht David Diop een episode uit de koloniale geschiedenis. Een geschiedenis die tot op de dag van vandaag voortduurt.

Reis zonder terugkeer

Nachts ist unser Blut schwarz

Alfa fights with the French army in World War I. In the same front, his friend Mademba becomes injured and asks Alfa to kill him to end his suffering. Anxious to avenge the death of his partner, every night Alfa slips into enemy positions, chooses a soldier, kills him, and takes a trophy.

Hermanos de Alma

Hammer Blows and Other Writings

Prima guerra mondiale. Una mattina, al fischio del capitano Armand, Mademba Diop e Alfa Ndiaye, due amici cresciuti in Senegal lontano dai freddi accampamenti del fronte francese, si gettano senza remore nel campo di battaglia contro i soldati nemici. Quando Mademba viene ferito a morte, Alfa, nonostante le suppliche dell’amico, non sopporta il pensiero di finirlo. Porre fine alla vita di colui che è quasi un fratello, un fratello d’anima, è per lui un gesto impensabile, per quanto misericordioso; un gesto inumano. Quando, infine, Mademba muore tra atroci sofferenze, Alfa viene travolto dal dolore e cede alla follia. Da quel momento, a ogni fischio di chiamata del capitano Armand, Alfa si precipita fuori dalla trincea e corre verso i «nemici dagli occhi azzurri», uccidendo senza pietà e, servendosi di un affilato macete, tagliando alle sue vittime una mano come trofeo di guerra. Una, due, tre, quattro... otto mani. Alfa Ndiaye, ormai ingovernabile, comincia a spaventare i suoi compagni d’arme, che iniziano a vedere in lui un demone, uno stregone, un divoratore di anime... Sollevato infine dall’incarico e rimosso dall’inferno dei combattimenti, lontano dal suo villaggio nativo e circondato da una lingua che non comprende, Alfa cura le ferite dell’anima raccontando la sua storia e quella di molti altri soldati africani durante la Prima guerra mondiale e riesce a salvarsi grazie al potere della letteratura. Con un linguaggio magnetico che ricorda Ahmadou Kourouma, Fratelli d’anima fornisce una visione sottile e potente del tumulto della guerra ed esplora il lato oscuro degli uomini e le profondità della follia.

Fratelli d'anima

Un matin de la Grande Guerre, le capitaine Armand siffle l'attaque contre l'ennemi allemand. Les soldats s'élancent. Dans leurs rangs, Alfa Ndiaye et Mademba Diop, deux tirailleurs sénégalais parmi tous ceux qui se battent alors sous le drapeau français. Quelques mètres après avoir jailli de la tranchée, Mademba tombe, blessé à mort, sous les yeux d'Alfa, son ami d'enfance, son plus que frère. Alfa se retrouve seul dans la folie du grand massacre, sa raison s'enfuit. Lui, le paysan d'Afrique, va distribuer la mort sur cette terre sans nom. Détaché de tout, y compris de lui-même, il répand sa propre violence, sème l'effroi. Au point d'effrayer ses camarades. Son évacuation à l'Arrière est le prélude à une remémoration de son passé en Afrique, tout un monde à la fois perdu et ressuscité dont la convocation fait figure d'ultime et splendide résistance à la première boucherie de l'ère moderne. Né à Paris en 1966, David Diop a grandi au Sénégal. Il est actuellement maître de conférences à l'université de Pau.

Frère d'âme - International Booker Prize 2021

Cette étude montre que la transposition littéraire des paroles africaines leur donne des allures de prosopopée. Puisant leur inspiration dans les récits de voyage, les textes abolitionnistes fixeront une rhétorique nègre significative des représentations générales de l'Africain au xviiie siècle.

David Diop

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