Great African Reads discussion

I am going for a blackout :-))

1/9

Short story

New-to-you country

Diaspora author
Véronique Tadjo's Queen Pokou: Concerto for a Sacrifice

Not written in English
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida's: Seebeben: Roman and/or Im Auge der Pflanzen originally written in Portuguese

Free Choice

Poetry

Prize winner

Recent (after 2020)

From North Africa
Fouad Laroui's Die alte Dame in Marrakesch

Looks good! Will have to snoop at a few of your titles, don't think I've read the portuguese ones :)

Anetq wrote: "Looks good! Will have to snoop at a few of your titles, don't think I've read the portuguese ones :)"

It's not filled in yet, but I thought I get started listing possible titles as long as I have the time to do so...
I wanted to read the above books last year but didn't so I have high hopes for 2024 :)
I will definitely (as always) snoop at your titles as well - and wish you a good reading year!

You too! Looking forward to sharing book recs with you again this year :)

Looking forward to your reviews!

I finished Fouad Laroui: Die alte Dame in Marrakesch.
A French couple would like to buy a house in Marrakesh, as they have this ideal picture of Arabian 1001 nights in their heads (at least the utterly bored by life guy has).
(view spoiler)[After having bought the house, the ghost of an old woman turns up in one the rooms of the house. This ghost then tells the story of the pre-owners of the house during the time of French colonialism in Morocco. After having heard the story, the couple wants to get rid of the house again because of the ghost and moves back to France - end of story. (hide spoiler)]
As the narrative breaks up in the middle of the book to tell the French-Moroccan history in this rather peculiar manner, the book loses consistency (as do so many novels dealing with historical topics) and thus, though in parts worth reading, I only give it three stars.

As I really liked and can only recommend Fouad Laroui's The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers I will give his Die Leiden des letzten Sijimassi a try some time in the future :)

OMG... This did not exactly work out well :))) But the "Laroui experience" made it worth participating even though the book was not one of my favourites!

Orgeluse wrote: "OMG... This did not exactly work out well :))) But the "Laroui experience" made it worth participating even though the book was not one of my favourites!"

Still worth it then :)
I've had "Trousers" in a paper copy for years - I should really read it :)