The Trees Talk of It Still
Publisher
:
Editions Albin Michel
Parution date
:
2002
EAN
:
9782226130969
Description
This book is the story of Édène, daughter of African tribal leader Assanga Djuli. Through her eyes, we see the world in which she lives: an Africa torn between tradition and modernity. With the passing of days, the young narrator tells us of how her father resisted foreign invaders with nothing but pieces of string and a kola nut; and of how her normally submissive mother rose to the occasion, transcending her condition. She tells the story of Fondamento de Plaisir, her father’s thrifty and wise second wife who finds a way to manage on her own, despite being barren; of Michel Ange de Montparnasse, a Friench soldier; of Awono the healer; of the very elegant though at times very dirty Father Wolfgang de Chrétien n°l, the first baptized man in the village; of Opportune de Sainte Guinée; of Zoa the leopard man, of the Issélés, the Issogos, the Étons and their wars...
This beautiful book is a page in the history of Africa’s buried history. Calixthe Beyala brilliantly conjures up this lost world with humor, fidelity and poetry.
Author
Calixthe Beyala : Calixthe Beyala is the author of Your Name Shall Be Tanga and The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, both translated into English and published by Heinemann. Her 1997 novel Les honneurs perdus was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman by the Académie française. She is universally recognized as one of francophone literature’s most popular and well-loved authors.
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