At night all blood is black / David Diop ; translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis.
"A 'Chocolat' soldier with the French army during World War I, Senegalese Alfa Ndiaye's friend Mademba Diop is in the same regiment. 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. He sees this refusal as cowardice. To avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, every night Alfa sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, returning with the German's severed hand. As rumors circulate that Alfa is a soul-eater, how far will he go to make amends to his dead friend?"--Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780374266974
- ISBN: 0374266972
- Physical Description: 145 pages ; 20 cm
- Edition: First American edition.
- Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
- Copyright: ©2020
Content descriptions
General Note: | "Originally published in French in 2018 by Éditions du Seuil, France, as Frère d'âme"--Title page verso. |
Language Note: | In English. Translated from the French. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Soldiers, Black > Fiction. Soldiers > Fiction. Mutilation > Fiction. World War, 1914-1918 > Fiction. Soldiers, Black. Mutilation. Soldiers. War stories. |
Genre: | War fiction. Psychological fiction. Historical fiction. Fiction. Historical fiction. War stories. War fiction. Psychological fiction. Senegalese fiction (French) > Translations into English. |
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | F DIOP (Text) | 000159603 | Fiction | Available | - |
At Night All Blood Is Black : A Novel
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Summary
At Night All Blood Is Black : A Novel
*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 fiction Shortlisted 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 2020 One 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 year Selected 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.