Cruel City

Mongo Beti (1932-2001), born in Cameroon, is considered one of the foremost African writers of the independence generation. His novels available in English include King Lazarus, Mission to Kala, and The Poor Christ of Bomba (named one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century).Pim Higginson is Associate Professor of French at Bryn Mawr College.

In [this] anti-colonial novel, the principle character is an ordinary young man who tries to achieve success on his own terms in a society in which the old represent a disintegrated traditional Africa and the young acquire useless knowledge in French school for travels that lead nowhere.(The Companion to African Literatures) A persuasive, even gripping study of a spiteful, naïve character.(Kirkus Reviews) With every new translation in its Global African Voices series, Indiana University Press, USA, moves a step fruther towards the realisation of its goal of overcoming the fragmentariness of modern African literature by intergrating originally French-language literary works into the English-language stream.(Saturday Nation)