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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, War
Moderate: Cannibalism
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"This book came as a surprise to me. iThe writing made me feel as if David was telling a story while sitting inside my stomach. I haven't read a book like this before. The first half of the book was gripping, with vivid descriptions of violence presented in a poetic way. However, the second half was almost a drag, as the author focused more on spirituality. Several questions were left unanswered in the end. Despite this, the book totally deserves the international booker prize."
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Tragedy spills out onto the very first page of this stylistically innovative and compelling story of a Senegalese soldier fighting in the trenches of WW1. And the tragedy becomes more and more layered as the story unfolds. Final few pages a bit too abstruse for me. The book is short and it was just long enough for such a tragedy.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a story that works really well as an audiobook. The narrator had such an emotional voice. The grief is amplified, the mania is amplified.
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
David Diop's novel takes us to the trenches during World War I, where Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese man fighting as a "Chocolat soldier" in the French Army, just lost his best friend, his "more-than-brother", Mademba, in a slow and gruesome death.
This breaks Alfa's spirit and soul, and his identity slowly slips away as he starts severing the hands of enemy soldiers. At first he's hailed as a hero, but with each new hand he brings back, his trench mates soon start worry that that he might a "dëmm", a sorcerer.
"God's truth, you'd have to be crazy to drag yourself screaming out of the belly of the earth. The bullets from the enemy on the other side, the giant seeds falling from the metallic sky, they aren't afraid of screams, they aren't afraid to pass through heads, flesh, to break bones and to sever lives. Temporary madness makes it possible to forget the truth about bullets. Temporary madness, in war, is bravery's sister."
I picked up this novel because of its evocative and ominous title. Its subject intrigued me and I have to say I definitely wasn't disappointed. At Night All Blood is Black is a short but intense and tragic book, and its story at times even takes on a mythical aspect.
"God's truth", the prose is repetitive, almost hypnotic, like a chant or a prayer. It not only matches Alfa's limited knowledge of the language and his descent into madness, it matches the madness of war itself and the way it breaks down and corrupts humanity. That this is book was translated from French by Anna Moschovakis, a poet herself, is even more fitting.
Since finishing reading, I found out that the novel's original title is Frere D'ame (Soul Brother), a word play on the French for "Brother in Arms" (Frere d'armes) which made me ponder over the meaning of the ending.
This breaks Alfa's spirit and soul, and his identity slowly slips away as he starts severing the hands of enemy soldiers. At first he's hailed as a hero, but with each new hand he brings back, his trench mates soon start worry that that he might a "dëmm", a sorcerer.
"God's truth, you'd have to be crazy to drag yourself screaming out of the belly of the earth. The bullets from the enemy on the other side, the giant seeds falling from the metallic sky, they aren't afraid of screams, they aren't afraid to pass through heads, flesh, to break bones and to sever lives. Temporary madness makes it possible to forget the truth about bullets. Temporary madness, in war, is bravery's sister."
I picked up this novel because of its evocative and ominous title. Its subject intrigued me and I have to say I definitely wasn't disappointed. At Night All Blood is Black is a short but intense and tragic book, and its story at times even takes on a mythical aspect.
"God's truth", the prose is repetitive, almost hypnotic, like a chant or a prayer. It not only matches Alfa's limited knowledge of the language and his descent into madness, it matches the madness of war itself and the way it breaks down and corrupts humanity. That this is book was translated from French by Anna Moschovakis, a poet herself, is even more fitting.
Since finishing reading, I found out that the novel's original title is Frere D'ame (Soul Brother), a word play on the French for "Brother in Arms" (Frere d'armes) which made me ponder over the meaning of the ending.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes