‘It’s very important to get our books published back at home’—Fungai Machirori interviews Lucy Mushita on her novel Chinongwa
Set in early twentieth-century Zimbabwe, Chinongwa follows the life of a young girl forced into child marriage with a much…
Category: France
[Fiction Issue] ‘I would be dead if not for books’—Read an excerpt from Hemley Boum’s prize-winning novel Days Come and Go
The JRB presents an excerpt from Days Come and Go by Hemley Boum, now available in English. Days Come and…
‘If there had been any kings in Rwanda, it was better to forget them’—Read an excerpt from Scholastique Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile
The JRB presents an excerpt from Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, out now in a new edition….
A flaming dispatch from Ananda Devi’s ‘evil twin’—Yagnishsing Dawoor reviews When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me
Ananda Devi’s When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me is an impassioned investigation of poetry writing as an apparatus…
View an excerpt from African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other, including work by Zanele Muholi, Hélène A Amouzou and Wilfred Ukpong
The JRB presents an excerpt from African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other. African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the OtherFotofestSchilt…
‘Temporary madness, in war, is bravery’s sister’—Read an excerpt from David Diop’s International Booker Prize-winning novel At Night All Blood Is Black
The JRB presents an excerpt from At Night All Blood Is Black, recent winner of the International Booker Prize. At…
[The JRB Daily] ‘It had jangled our emotions and blown our minds’—David Diop and Anna Moschovakis win the 2021 International Booker Prize for At Night All Blood is Black
Image: International Booker Prize At Night All Blood is Black, written by Senegalese–French author David Diop and translated by American…
[Fiction Issue] ‘That’s how evenings in Nawa went.’—Read an excerpt from The Ardent Swarm, the English debut from award-winning author Yamen Manai
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Ardent Swarm, the third novel from award-winning Tunisian author Yamen Manai, but the…
[Sampler issue] Read an exclusive excerpt from Alain Mabanckou’s new novel The Death of Comrade President, a tale of family and revolution in postcolonial Congo
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from The Death of Comrade President, the new novel from Alain Mabanckou. The Death…
‘We are African writers, we write as Africans and we share our books as Africans’—The tiny island of Mayotte has big plans for books, reports James Murua
The JRB Editorial Advisory Panel member James Murua reports back from his trip to the Salon du Livre de Mayotte, which took place…
Southern Africa throws its hat into the millennial fiction ring—Mphuthumi Ntabeni reviews The Eternal Audience of One, the debut novel by Rwandan–Namibian author Rémy Ngamije
With prose that sparkles and pops, Rémy Ngamije’s The Eternal Audience of One is a millennial novel that intricately traces…
The quest to establish a world-class African philosophical tradition—Sanya Osha reviews Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Humanism
On Paulin Hountondji’s Universalist philosophy—Sanya Osha reviews Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Humanism, by Franziska Dubgen and Stefan Skupien….
An exhilarating elegy for the slaves and storytellers of old—Lara Buxbaum reviews Patrick Chamoiseau’s wildly inventive novel The Old Slave and the Mastiff
Tracing the memory of bones, ‘a long thread of words that attempted to fulfil the universe’—Lara Buxbaum reviews The Old…
Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal wins €10,000 Prix Orange du livre en Afrique for her novel Munyal, les larmes de la patience
Munyal, les larmes de la patience by Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal has won the first Prix Orange du livre…
Rough honesty, ample sex and ripe desire—Efemia Chela reads Leïla Slimani’s Adèle, Ariana Harwicz’s Die, My Love and Melissa Broder’s The Pisces
The JRB Contributing Editor Efemia Chela reads Adèle, Die, My Love and The Pisces, three stirring psychological novels, kindred portraits of contemporary womanhood….
I’d Kill For Some Sleep: Tahar Ben Jelloun’s novel L’insomnie tackles a modern malady
«S’il vous plaît … un petit peu de sommeil … un petit peu de cette douce et agréable absence ……
Ivorian author Armand Gauz wins 2018 Prix-Ivoire for his novel Camarade Papa
Ivorian Armand Gauz has won the 2018 Prix-Ivoire for his sublime historical fiction novel Camarade Papa. The action is set in…
Read an excerpt from What Is Africa to Me? by Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé, winner of the ‘alternative Nobel’ literature prize
A giant of black feminist writing and thought, Maryse Condé was recently awarded the New Academy Prize in Literature, a…
Maryse Condé receives The New Academy Prize in Literature, aka the ‘Alternative Nobel’
On 12 October, Maryse Condé was announced as the winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature, an award created…
Read an excerpt from Congolese–French author Wilfried N’sondé’s novel Un océan, deux mers, trois continents, winner of the Prix Ahmadou-Kourouma
Un océan, deux mers, trois continents is the realisation of an idea I had forming in my mind for about…
Seoul and Sky: JMG Le Clézio’s new novel, Bitna, sous le ciel de Séoul
2008 Nobel Prize-winning Franco-Mauritian author JMG Le Clézio has dipped his pen into the world of transnational literature again, but…
‘Kasala for Myself’—New jazz-suffused poetry from Fiston Mwanza Mujila featured in Asymptote, in English and French
In their Summer issue, Asymptote Journal features new poetry from Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila. Eschewing the more chaotic and…
The over-intellectualisation of desire—Efemia Chela reviews Anne Garréta’s newly translated memoir Not One Day
The JRB Francophone and Contributing Editor Efemia Chela reviews Not One Day, Anne Garréta’s memoir and the second of her books to be…
What we talk about when we talk about French: New words enter the 2019 Larousse and Le Robert
The French language is notoriously conservative. There is even a congregation of very serious people—l’Académie française—that decides how the language…
Snapshots of Death: Allegorical short fiction from Algerian writer Chawki Amari
Two men are talking in a smoke-filled room. On the carved table in the middle of the sitting room is…
Guinean author Tierno Monénembo honoured with Grand Prix de la Francophonie
Guinean novelist and biochemist Tierno Monénembo received the Grand Prix de la Francophonie at a ceremony late last year at…
« Le bébé est mort. » Leïla Slimani explodes the French home in the newly translated Lullaby
The English translation of French–Moroccan author Leïla Slimani’s award-winning novel, Chanson Douce, is out this month. The book, the title…
From the fringe to the centre: Meet ‘The New French’ in the latest issue of Words Without Borders
The French-language literary tradition distinguishes between ‘French’ or ‘hexagonal’ literature, written by authors born in France (the hexagon), and ‘Francophone’…
New translation of Marie NDiaye’s psychological drama My Heart Hemmed In
Since her first literary outing at seventeen with the novel Quant au riche avenir, Marie NDiaye has challenged and beguiled both readers…
The limits of counterfactual fiction: Percy Zvomuya reviews Bertène Juminer’s Bozambo’s Revenge and Michel Houellebecq’s Submission
La Revanche de Bozambo / Bozambo’s Revenge Bertène Juminer Présence Africaine, 1968 (French ed.)/Three Continents Press, 1968 (English ed.) Submission…