Literature without borders
Alain Mabanckou, life in the kingdom of the dead
Audio 29:00
The writer Alain Mabanckou in the studio at RFI (August 2022) © Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI
By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint
2 mins
Born in Pointe-Noire in Congo-Brazzaville, Alain Mabanckou teaches today in the United States.
Translator, editor, writer, documentary filmmaker, he is the author of numerous essays and novels, including
Mémoire de porc-épic
(Prix Renaudot in 2006).
He has just published
Le commerce des lounges
with Editions du Seuil, a fable on the world of the dead and a satire on the world of the living.
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The Elongated trade © Seuil
“
Liwa Ekimakingaï spent her childhood and continues to live with her grandmother, Mâ Lembé, because her mother, Albertine, died giving birth to her.
He is employed as a cook at the Victory Palace hotel in Pointe-Noire.
And he waits to meet love.
One evening of
August 15, when the country's independence is celebrated, he gathers his finest attire, barely bought in the afternoon, and quite extravagant, to go clubbing.
At the edge of the dance floor, the beautiful Adeline seems unreachable.
However, she accepts his advances, without however compromising herself.
She will sign her end...
The novel is a rewind into the life and final hours of the young man, who attends his own four-day wake and funeral. Immediately buried, he emerges from his grave. For revenge
?
In the background, the city of Pointe-Noire and its cemeteries – in particular the Cimetière des Riches, where everyone would dream of having a burial but where the places are very expensive, and that known as Frère-Lachaise, for the whole -coming of which Liwa is a part.
In this great social, political and visionary novel, the class struggle continues into the kingdom of the dead, where they are also strangely alive.
(Presentation of
Seuil editions
)
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