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The Lights of Pointe-Noire
Alain Mabanckou
Memoir, 2013. Translated from French
A memoir of returning to the Congolese port city of his childhood, exploring family, mourning and memory.
Books set in Congo
Four books by writers from Congo, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with The Lights of Pointe-Noire and Broken Glass.
About the literature of Congo
The Republic of the Congo, across the river from its larger namesake, has an unusually rich literature for its size. Brazzaville was a lively centre of francophone writing after independence from France in 1960, home to poets and novelists such as Tchicaya U Tam'si and Sony Labou Tansi. Today its best-known writer is Alain Mabanckou, born in Pointe-Noire in 1966, whose Memoirs of a Porcupine won the Prix Renaudot in 2006.
Start with The Lights of Pointe-Noire, a memoir of returning to the port city of his childhood. Broken Glass has a drinker in a Brazzaville bar recording his neighbours in unpunctuated, darkly comic prose. Memoirs of a Porcupine gives a man an animal double in a satire of village beliefs, and African Psycho follows an aspiring killer in Brazzaville.
By writers from Congo
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Broken Glass
Alain Mabanckou
Novel, 2005. Translated from French by Helen Stevenson
A drinker in a Brazzaville bar records the neighbourhood's characters, humour and politics in unpunctuated, darkly comic prose.
Memoirs of a Porcupine
Alain Mabanckou
Novel, 2006. Translated from French
A porcupine serves as a man's animal double in this satire of Republic of Congo village beliefs and society.
African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou
Novel, 2003. Translated from French by Christine Schwartz Hartley
A dark comic novel about an aspiring killer in Brazzaville, with a sharp view of the city's low life and its myths.
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