Republic of the Congo / All works
Short stories
L'Exil ou la tombe
Not translated into English
Tchichelle Tchivela · 1986
Synopsis
Twelve short stories of varying length on political power as it is exercised in an African country: informing, arbitrary arrests, repression, lying made into a rule. People endure harassment, threats even at work, and the powerful take other men's wives; a humiliated husband answers them with a letter addressed to “Monsieur l'obsédé sexuel”. To escape the grave, some choose exile, where nostalgia for Pointe-Noire catches up with them.
Context
Présence africaine published the volume in 1986 in its Écrits series, six years after the author's first collection of short stories, published by Hatier. The publisher stressed its manner, close to the Latin American novelists: a dislocated narrative time, nested discourses. The author warns at the head of the book that characters and places are imaginary; critics note that the reader is nevertheless tempted to recognise familiar faces in it.
Who it is for
Twelve stories in French, from a Parisian publisher that still keeps them in its catalogue. They call for attentive reading: the chronology often has to be reconstructed.
Prizes and reception
No known prize; Noël Kodia counts its author among the short-story writers who have left their mark on the letters of the Congo.
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