Short stories · A way to begin
The Land without Shadows
Le Pays sans ombre
Abdourahman A. Waberi · 1994
Synopsis
Seventeen short stories, among the first texts to show the Djiboutians from their own point of view. The book is made up of two movements, a detour made of “pages torn from the imaginary novel” and then a return, “pages torn from the land without shadows”. We meet wise madmen and ogresses, troglodytes, khat chewers, and the country's drama: the abuses of the dictatorship, the frustrations of the youth, the painful building of the railway, dreams as the only hope.
Context
The book appeared in Paris in 1994 from Le Serpent à plumes, then was reprinted in 1995 and in 2002. It precedes two other books by the author, Cahier nomade in 1996 and Balbala in 1997. The writing draws on the techniques of Djiboutian oral culture, with lyricism and a teeming play of style. Jeanne Garane translated it into English under the title The Land without Shadows, published in 2005 by the University of Virginia Press, in a series devoted to French-language African and Caribbean literatures.
Who it is for
Brief stories, in an exuberant and at times hallucinatory style; an English translation exists.
Prizes and reception
The critic Landry-Wilfrid Miampika saw in it in 1998 the desire to overcome the despair of a humiliated country.
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