Short stories
Les Enfants de Mandela
Not translated into English
Jérôme Carlos · 1988
Synopsis
All the stories in this collection are set in apartheid South Africa, the book's only theme, and its subtitle announces a tribute to freedom fighters. A journalist, the author followed South African news for the press; he chose fiction to convey the complexity of a situation that, in his view, was being seen in black and white, and to reject the Manichaeism that then dominated the debate on this regime.
Context
Published by Éditions Ceda in their fiction series, the volume of one hundred and sixty-three pages brings together texts some of which had first appeared in a journal. It received in 1989 a major Ivorian prize for the arts and letters and was placed on the licence programme of the École normale supérieure in Abidjan. In a 1999 interview, the writer regarded it as his only collection of short stories and said he had wanted, against a reductive view, to show a reality distorted by ideology and extremism.
Who it is for
For those who want to approach apartheid through fiction, by a journalist who distrusted overly simple narratives.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a prize the year after its release, it was one of the best sellers in the country where it appeared, according to its author.
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