Literature without borders
One land, one author: in Senegal with David Diop
Audio 29:00
The writer David Diop in the studio at RFI (September 2021).
© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint/RFI
By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint
1 min
Born in Paris in 1966, David Diop grew up in Senegal and is a lecturer at the University of Pau.
He signs, with "
La Porte du voyage sans retour
", his third novel, after the success of "
Frère d'âme
" (winner of the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens 2018, the International Booker Prize 2021 and translated into more than one thirty countries).
(Replay)
Advertising
The door to the journey of no return © Seuil
"The door of the journey without return"
is the nickname given to the island of Gorée, from where millions of Africans left during the slave trade.
It was in what in 1750 was a French concession that a young man landed, who had come to Senegal to study the local flora.
A botanist, he cherishes the dream of establishing a universal encyclopedia of living things, in a century when the time has come for Enlightenment.
When he hears of the story of a young African woman destined for slavery and who managed to escape, finding refuge somewhere at the edge of the Senegalese land, her journey and her destiny change in the obstinate quest for this lost woman who left behind her a thousand tracks and as many legends.
Inspired by the figure of Michel Adanson, French naturalist (1727-1806), David Diop signs a dazzling novel, a powerful evocation of a kingdom where the word is king, a moving odyssey of two beings who never stop coming together, to love each other and to lose each other, transmission of a heritage from a father to his daughter, ultimate recipient of the notebooks which relate this hidden journey."
(Presentation of the
editions of Seuil
).
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Literature
Senegal
France
Story
Slavery
One land, one author
On the same subject
"Soul Brother" by David Diop awarded the prestigious Booker Prize
Literary prize
Franco-Senegalese writer David Diop wins the Goncourt Prize for high school students
Guest Culture
David Diop author of the book "Brother of soul"