Novel
Notre pain de chaque nuit
Not translated into English
Florent Couao-Zotti · 1998
Synopsis
Nono, a prostitute in Cotonou, kills in self-defence a client who is too forward and says he is a deputy of the people. Adolphe Saklo, a young boxer nicknamed Dendjer for the violence of his blows, once her lover and still under her hold, helps her get rid of the body, and from that night a tense and fragile liaison is reborn between them. While Dendjer piles up victories and aims at a world title, Nono makes her way into political circles and drops him for Kpakpa, another deputy with a fine future ahead of him.
Context
Published by Le Serpent à plumes and then reissued in paperback by J'ai lu in 2000, the novel earned its author a first recognition. In Africultures, Taina Tervonen saw in it an account of the margins of the big city, which could take place just as well in Cotonou as in Rio de Janeiro or in Moscow, carried by a jerky style, made of short sentences and tinged with slang, and she welcomed a superb debut. Two years later, a collection of short stories continued the same plunge into the lower depths of the African city.
Who it is for
For those who like tense crime novels, in which boxing, the night and politics mingle in an African city.
Prizes and reception
Hailed on its release as a promising first novel, it launched an author whom the Prix Ahmadou-Kourouma honoured in 2010 for a later novel.
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