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London. Seagull Books. 2021. 124 pages.
ALAIN MABANCKOU, a native of the Congo and a longtime professor at UCLA, is one of the world’s leading francophone authors. If…
Alain Mabanckou
New York. New Press. 2020. 256 pages. IN 2015, ALAIN MABANCKOU crafted a modern folktale with Black Moses. The novel followed the titular child’s odyssey through one of the m…
Photo: Glenn Ruben Berg / Unsplash [draw your strength] draw your strength from the lifeless leaf break all bonds until you can tie your fate to the baobab trunk don’t hold within yourself any dr…
Trans. Bill Johnston. Bloomington. Indiana University Press. 2019. 203 pages. In the Republic of Vietongo, life is a perpetual schism. The setting of Alain Mabanckou’s most recently translated novel,…
Trans. Helen Stevenson. New York. Soft Skull Press. 2018. 176 pages. Last year, Black Moses stood as a testament to Alain Mabanckou’s literary prowess, positing a journey of growth amid the g…
New York. The New Press. 2017. 199 pages. A beautiful amalgam of childlike optimism and the harshness of reality, Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses solidifies the author’s status as a modern mast…
Alain Mabanckou. Photo by Shevaun Williams On March 19, 2006, the French daily newspaper Le Monde published an article I wrote entitled “La francophonie, oui; le ghetto, non.”1 My intention…
A collage of two images by Alex Majoli, created by Daria Birang. Courtesy of Cherry Trees Gallery (Megève, France). To honor Mabanckou on the occasion of his visit to the University of O…
New York. The New Press. 2016. 202 pages. Without so much as a few lines’ hesitation, Alain Mabanckou extinguishes a persistent, haunting myth within The Lights of Pointe-Noire: despite cling…
Sara Meli Ansari, tr. Berkeley, California. Soft Skull Press / Counterpoint. 2014. ISBN 9781593766016 In Letter to Jimmy, Alain Mabanckou gives a heartfelt tribute to James Baldwin. Gazing a…- Paris. Seuil. 2013. ISBN 9782021003949 Alain Mabanckou is one of the most widely read and discussed African writers today. After publishing a number of well-received novels and winning several prizes,…
