.png) First edition cover | |
| Author | David Diop |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Dion Graham (EN) |
| Translator | Anna Moschovakis (EN) |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Publisher | Le Seuil (FRA) Pushkin Press (UK) FSG (US) |
Publication date | 16 August 2018 (FR) |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 5 November 2020 (UK) 10 November 2020 (US) |
| Media type | Print, ebook, audiobook |
| Pages | 178 pp (1st French ed.) |
| ISBN | 9782021398243 (1st French ed.) |
| OCLC | 1048744721 |
| 843/.914 | |
| LC Class | PQ3989.2.D563 F7413 2020 |
At Night All Blood Is Black (French:Frère d'âme,lit. 'Soul brother') is a novel by French authorDavid Diop. First published in French on August 16, 2018, byÉditions du Seuil, it won thePrix Goncourt des Lycéens that same year.[1]
The English translation byAnna Moschovakis won the 2021International Booker Prize.[2] It was published in the UK byPushkin Press and in the US byFarrar, Straus and Giroux.[3]
Alfa Ndiaye and his adopted brother Mademba Diop areSenegalese Tirailleurs fighting inWorld War I. One day, Alfa jokes about the Diop family'stotem, the peacock, stating that it is cowardly when compared to the Ndiaye family's lion. Wanting to prove his bravery, Mademba charges into battle and is disemboweled. Mademba asks Alfa tokill him repeatedly, but Alfa is unable to do so. After Mademba's death, Alfa captures German soldiers and disembowels them. When they beg for death, he kills them, granting them a mercy he was unable to give to Mademba. He then brings their severed hands and rifles back to camp.
At first, he is hailed as a hero for his bravery, but his fellow soldiers quickly realize that he is spiraling into madness and become afraid of him. After the seventh severed hand, the commander orders Alfa to take one month's leave. While being treated in a psychiatric hospital by Dr. François, Alfa reminisces about his childhood and life in Senegal. He buries his collection of mummified hands, then rapes and kills Dr. François's daughter.
The narrative abruptly shifts to recount a Senegalese story about a fickle princess and a sorcerer without scars. The narrative meditates on the meaning of stories within stories and the difficulty of translation. The narrator speaks in the voice of Mademba, believing he is now living in Alfa's body.
Critical reviews of the novel were generally favourable. According toBook Marks, the book received a "rave" consensus, based on seventeen critics: eleven "rave" and six "positive".[4] In the March/April 2021 issue ofBookmarks, the book was scored a four out of five. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Its dark and difficult content is tempered, at least somewhat, by the lyrical style, making the novel a "harrowing, nimbly translated" (Publishers Weekly) work of Francophone literature".[5][6][7]
RFI called the original book "incisive and scathing", noting Diop's "very direct" style.[8]Le Monde viewed it as a subversive story endowed with "undeniable literary qualities", appropriately published in time for thecentenary of the armistice that ended the war.[9] Angelique Chrisafis inThe Guardian said the book was "heartbreaking and poetic".[10] Suzi Feay inThe Spectator wrote of the novel as "powerful" and "full of echoes and portents".[11] InThe New York Times, Laura Cappelle praised the work for contributing to a "reckoning with colonial history in French fiction", andChigozie Obioma described it as an "extraordinary" novel about a "bloody stain on human history".[12][13] Anna Branach-Kallas argued that the novel commemorates the contribution of African French Army soldiers in the First World War by stressing their vulnerability and their traumatic transformation on the front lines.[14] Mehrul Bari inThe Daily Star wrote, "One can find here the classic idiosyncrasies ofAfrican stories—the charms, the wisdoms—most noticeably in the characterisation of Alfa, who resembles heroic, boastful narrators likeThe Palm-Wine Drinkard's, who are casually able to perform fantastical feats without a second thought."[15]
The novel was a 2018 finalist for the four major French literary prizes (Goncourt,Médicis,Femina,Renaudot).[16] On November 15, 2018, it was finally awarded thePrix Goncourt des Lycéens in the second round of voting by five votes overLe Malheur du bas by Inès Bayard andLa Vraie Vie byAdeline Dieudonné.[17]
The English translation by the American poetAnna Moschovakis was titledAt Night All Blood Is Black. It won theInternational Booker Prize in 2021, making Diop the first French writer to receive this award.[18]
