The heart-breaking (New York Times Book Review), rollicking,
award-winning novel that has been described as Oliver Twist in 1970s
Africa (Les Inrockuptibles)
One of the most compelling books you'll read in any language this
year. --Rolling Stone
Winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award
Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize
Shortlisted for the Albertine Prize
Shortlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize
Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize
Greeted with wildly enthusiastic reviews on publication, Alain
Mabanckou's riotous novel begins in an orphanage in 1970s
Congo-Brazzaville run by a malicious political stooge who makes the life
of our hero, Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namboka ya
Bakoko--his name means Let us thank God, the black Moses is born on the
lands of the ancestors, but most people just call him Moses--very
difficult.
Moses is also terrorized by his two fellow orphans--the twins
Songi-Songi and Tala-Tala--but after Moses exacts revenge on them by
lacing their food with hot pepper, the twins take Moses under their
wing, escape the orphanage, and move to the bustling port town of
Pointe-Noire, where they form a gang that survives on petty theft.
What follows is a pointed (Los Angeles Times), vivid and funny (New
York Times), larger-than-life tale that chronicles Moses's ultimately
tragic journey through the Pointe-Noire underworld and the politically
repressive reality of Congo-Brazzaville in the 1970s and '80s.
Ringing with beautiful poetry, (Wall Street Journal) Black Moses is
a vital new extension of Mabanckou's cycle of Pointe-Noire novels that
stand out as one of the grandest and funniest fictional projects of our
time.
