WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2021 A GUARDIAN and THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This slight book is an extraordinarily powerful exploration of what happens to the souls of men sent to kill and be killed' -- The Times, Historical Fiction Books of the Year 'Extraordinary... full of sadness, rage and beauty' Sarah Waters Alfa and Mademba are two of the many Senegalese soldiers fighting in the Great War. Together they climb dutifully out of their trenches to attack France's German enemies whenever the whistle blows, until Mademba is wounded, and dies in a shell hole with his belly torn open. Without his more-than-brother, Alfa is alone and lost amidst the savagery of the conflict. He devotes himself to the war, to violence and death, but soon begins to frighten even his own comrades in arms. How far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? At Night All Blood is Black is a hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness.

Si, au dix-huitieme siecle, l'Afrique est l'incarnation radicale de 'l'autre', ses representations portent cependant le sceau d'un paradoxe fondamental: elles s'affirment comme 'veridiques', alors meme que le continent et ses habitants sont tres mal connus. Les discours sur l'Afrique ont donc une double histoire: celle de l'exploration progressive du continent et celle des attentes des lecteurs auxquels ils sont destines. Pour analyser la nature et les implications de ce paradoxe, une equipe de specialistes a examine ces representations selon deux perspectives. Il s'agissait de comprendre comment des fictions s'enracinaient, en amont, dans des textes qui se donnaient comme des recits de voyages authentiques et comment, en aval, cet imaginaire a pu determiner des comportements reels, susciter aussi bien le mouvement de colonisation que les combats pour l'emancipation des esclaves. Plus qu'un inventaire des descriptions de l'Afrique, ce volume propose une reflexion sur ses representations, sur leurs racines, leurs fonctions ideologiques et leur diffusion. Il ne s'agit donc pas de mettre en scene, pour mieux le condamner, le racisme au siecle des Lumieres, mais de cerner ce que l'on pensait savoir alors sur l'Afrique et les Africains, en utilisant des outils d'analyse empruntes a Michel Foucault. Dans ce volume interdisciplinaire, abondamment illustre, les auteurs examinent pour la premiere fois la genealogie et les conditions d'un 'savoir' sur l'Afrique au dix-huitieme siecle. Pour tous ceux qui travaillent sur les recits de voyages et sur l'histoire culturelle des Lumieres, L'Afrique du siecle des Lumieres: savoirs et representations constitue une lecture essentielle.

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 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