Reading the World discussion

One of the first literary works to portray Djiboutians from their own point of view, The Land without Shadows is a collection of seventeen short stories. The author, Abdourahman A. Waberi, one of a handful of francophone writers of fiction to have emerged in the twentieth century from the "confetti-sized state" of Djibouti, has already won international recognition and prizes in African literature for his stories and novel. Because his writing is linked to immigration and exile, his native Djibouti occupies center stage in his work. Drawing on the Somali/Djiboutian oral tradition to weave pieces of legend, proverbs, music, poetry, and history together with references to writers as diverse as Soyinka, Shakespeare, Djebar, Baudelaire, Césaire, Waugh, Senghor, and Beckett, Waberi succeeds in bringing his country into a context that reaches well beyond the Horn of Africa.

If anyone is is considering reading it, here it is for free on open library: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL29011...

I read it earlier this month I gave it 4 stars. I remember Gail mentioned on the nominations thread that someone she knew had served there and had some horrifying stories about Djibouti. And, well, this book gets across the terror of the lack of human rights and military repression quite unflinchingly. It's a good read, but not an 'easy' one. In the short stories, people ask if God has abandoned them, if they have all transgressed against each other so deeply that any of them deserve mercy and a better life, if it is even worth trying for better when the people are stacked against such bloody institutional power.

But it is not just a display of suffering. The mundanity and humanity of people's lives shine through as well, grounding the piece and adding a weight to the tragedy, reminding the reader that these things happen to regular human people, who live on as best they can.

One of the most standout parts of the book is the syncretic writing style that Celia describes in the summary above. I started reading and immediately got the African oral tradition vibes, as well as the influences from Anglo/French modernist literature, as well some of the story read like a historic stats list to make you reflect on the sterility of how we process 'failed states', but then keep reading and thought 'woah, the language gets really deep and poetic here' and was thinking 'is this an intentional nod to Shakespeare?" ...I was pleased to find out it was! It elevates the story from having a 'for just 3$ a day' tragedy p*rn vibes, into a modern Shakespearean tragedy. It challenges the reader to consider why some forms of suffering count as deep or deserving our empathy, and can be raised to 'high art', and some aren't.

Beautiful review, thank you! I'm not sure I'm going to get it into this month but will definitely try over the first quarter. Your review helped greatly.

Oh lovely: glad to hear that Gail :)

I agree. TY Amanda. I was going to abandon it, but no longer.

ayyy, I'm glad to hear that too :)