David Diop – författare

Om natten är allt blod svart utgår från erfarenheten hos en senegalesisk soldat som stred för kolonialmakten Frankrike under Första världskriget. Boken belönades med International Booker Prize 2021, och har fått flera andra prestigefyllda priser. David Diop (f. 1966) är en fransk författare och akademiker. Han specialiserar sig på fransk och frankofon litteratur från 1700-talet, bland annat hur Afrika framställdes i reseskildringar från den tiden. Hans första bok 1889, l’Attraction universelle kom 2012. Romanen handlar om elva personer som var del av den senegalesiska delegationen på Världsutställningen i Paris. Om natten är allt blod svart är Diops internationella genombrott.

”Om natten är allt blod svart går rakt in på min lista över årets bästa böcker", skriver Martin Engberg i GP. "Första världskriget framhålls ofta som det skeende som tog död på det sista av krigets romantiska skimmer. En avförtrollning som litteraturen gjort sitt för att bidra till, men David Diops roman gör det genant tydligt hur ensidigt västerländskt perspektivet fortfarande är på detta globala krig, med tanke på de miljoner icke-vita, icke-europeiska soldater som stred i europeiska arméer. . . .// Om natten är allt blod svart” är en tät, monologisk roman, fylld av en mardrömslik stämning som inte släpper taget om läsarens hjärta. https://www.gp.se/kultur/recension-om-natten-är-allt-blod-svart-av-david-diop-1.89313907

Från BTJ:

"En rik berättelse med stark närvaro och fin människokännedom. Skildringarna från såväl krigets hemskheter som bylivet med dess komplikationer är

levande och man berörs av ödena. Marianne Tufvesson har gjort en mycket fin översättning från franskan."

Helhetsbetyg: 5.

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.

A Finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature | Longlisted for the Dublin Literary AwardOne of The Atlantic’s 10 Best Books of 2023 A Financial Times Best Book of 2023 | Named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews“A hypnotic, powerful historical novel in which stories nest within one another like dolls . . . It all coheres mesmerizingly.” —Clémence Michallon, The New York Times Book Review“Stunningly realized . . . Exquisite . . . A spellbinding novel.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow KingThe thrilling and deeply moving new novel by David Diop, winner of the International Booker Prize.Paris, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson lies on his deathbed, the masterwork to which he dedicated his life still incomplete. As he expires, the last word to escape his lips is a woman’s name: Maram.The key to this mysterious woman’s identity is Adanson’s unpublished memoir of the years he spent in Senegal, concealed in a secret compartment in a chest of drawers. Therein lies a story as fantastical as it is tragic: Maram, it turns out, is none other than the fabled revenant. A young woman of noble birth from the kingdom of Waalo, Maram was sold into slavery but managed to escape from the Island of Gorée—a major embarkation point of the transatlantic slave trade—to a small village hidden in the forest. While on a research expedition in West Africa as a young man, Adanson hears the story of the revenant and becomes obsessed with finding her. Accompanied by his guide, he ventures deep into the Senegalese bush on a journey that reveals not only the savagery of the French colonial occupation but also the unlikely transports of the human heart.Written with sensitivity and narrative flair, David Diop’s Beyond the Door of No Return is a love story like few others. Drawing on the richness and lyricism of Senegal’s oral traditions, Diop has constructed a historical epic of the highest order.

*WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE**ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA''S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021*Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fictionShortlisted for the 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award"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 2020One 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 yearSelected 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.

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED FICTION

'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' MAAZA MENGISTE, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Shadow King'Diop has opened a new way of thinking about the eighteenth century and its hideous cruelties' ABDULRAZAK GURNAH, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature'A compelling romantic adventure... Through an act of remembrance, Diop seeks to build a repository of lives and histories lost to the slave trade' FINANCIAL TIMES'Diop explores the cruelties of colonialism in a powerful story of love destroyed' SUNDAY TIMES, Historical Fiction Pick of the Month

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The captivating new novel from David Diop, winner of the International Booker Prize

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.

'A gripping, galloping narrative that challenges perceptions to the very last page', Marie Claire

'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

'It's hard to imagine a more gripping or fertile subject', Guardian

Prais, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson is dying. His last word is a woman's name: Maram. But who was she?

Searching for the answer, Adanson's daughter discovers a journal of his youthful travels in Senegal, which tells a story of wild adventure and impossible desires. It reveals how he heard of a young woman sold into slavery who did the impossible and returned. How he became obsessed with finding her, whatever the cost. And how a man who longed to solve the mysteries of natural instead found himself grappling with the impulses of the heart.

La désignation de « paroles rapportées » peut masquer, sous le trompe-l’œil d’une fidélité plus ou moins revendiquée, la réduction inévitable qu’opère toute représentation par rapport à la totalité de l’acte d’énonciation représenté. L’autonymie, et par conséquent le discours direct, sont au cœur de cette tension entre fidélité et facticité. Rapporter le discours d’autrui, même au style direct, n’est-ce pas toujours déjà se l’approprier ?Ce livre rassemble les travaux de chercheurs antiquisants, littéraires, linguistes et stylisticiens sur cet aspect de l’hétérogénéité énonciative que sont les illusions attachées à l’autonymie dans la représentation du discours de l’Autre. Outre les modalités de transcription du discours de l’Autre et leurs effets sémantiques, poétiques et pragmatiques, a été abordée dans cet ouvrage collectif la question des illusions de la fidélité littérale.