Memoirs of a Porcupine - Softcover

Mabanckou, Alain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846687675 ISBN 13: 9781846687679

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2011

Synopsis

All human beings, says an African legend, have an animal double. Some are benign, others wicked. When Kibandi, a boy living in a Congolese village, reaches the age of eleven, his father takes him out into the night, and forces him to drink a vile liquid from a jar which has been hidden for years in the earth. This is his initiation. 

From now on he, and his double, a porcupine, become accomplices in murder. They attack neighbours, fellow villagers, people who simply cross their path. Throughout his life Kibandi relies on his double to act out his grizzly compulsions, until one day even the porcupine baulks, and turns instead to literary confession.

About this title

About the Author:

Alain Mabanckou was born in 1966 in the Congo. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches literature at UCLA. The author of several novels as well as six books of poetry, he received the Subsaharan African Literature Prize for "Blue-White-Red" and the Prix Renaudot for "Memoirs of a Porcupine."

Review:

Praise for Memoirs of a Porcupine

"[Mabanckou] has come to be known as Africa's Samuel Beckett . . . Mabanckou's freewheeling prose marries classical French elegance with Paris slang and a Congolese beat . . . The novel draws on oral lore and parables in its sly critique of those who use traditional beliefs as a pretext for violence." --The Economist

Praise for Memoirs of a Porcupine

"Award-winning writer Mabanckou blends the surreal with some sour comic observation, and the dual perspective creates a sharp narrative." --"Booklist"

"[Mabanckou] has come to be known as Africa's Samuel Beckett . . . Mabanckou's freewheeling prose marries classical French elegance with Paris slang and a Congolese beat . . . The novel draws on oral lore and parables in its sly critique of those who use traditional beliefs as a pretext for violence." --"The Economist"

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1846687675
• ISBN 13: 9781846687679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162