A review by jenni8fer
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou

4.0

Wonderful prose and very witty. A coming-of-age story, set at the start of the 1970s, about a Congolese boy, named 'Moses' in the beginning which became 'Little Pepper' after a retribution stunt against a set of twins, growing up in an orphanage in Loango, Congo; his escape from the corrupt orphanage director's hold; and his life on the streets of Pointe-Noire's Cote Sauvage. He doesn't come to a very happy end, but his peace of mind returns. I really enjoyed the authenticity of the author's story. The author, who is Congolese, dedicated the book to the wanderers he encountered on the Cote Sauvage in Pointe-Noire who told him pieces of their life stories, and there was a real 'Little Pepper', though the book is not his story, but a creation of the amalgam of stories.