Novel
Étrange héritage
Not translated into English
Gad Ami · 1985
Synopsis
Déla, a schoolgirl and the eldest daughter of a modest family, and Koffi, a student and the only son of one of the richest men in the country, love each other despite the reserve of the young man's father. Koffi leaves to continue his studies in France; their love is kept alive through letters and holidays, then Déla discovers she is pregnant and gives birth to a son, Désiré. The grandfather acknowledges the child but demands that Koffi know nothing of it, and stops at no lie to separate the lovers. Déla tells this story to her son, in a notebook that will be his inheritance.
Context
The novel was published in Lomé by Nouvelles Éditions africaines, in 1985 according to some, in 1986 according to others. Its author is counted among the first Togolese women to have published a novel. The book is addressed by the narrator to her son, and its melodramatic tone links it, according to the critic Koffi Anyinefa, to the photo-romance of which the heroine is fond; it is said to have opened the way for the love novel in Togo. The author gave a second novel only in 2014, published in Cotonou.
Who it is for
A sentimental novel in the first person, in French, quick to read; the tone is that of melodrama.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the first novels published by a Togolese woman, and as the country's first love novel.
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