Paperback / softback
February 21, 2013
9780253007919
English
French
168
8.50 Inches (US)
5.50 Inches (US)
.5 Pounds (US)
$17.00 USD, £13.00 GBP
v2.1 Reference

Blue White Red

A Novel

This tale of wild adventure reveals the dashed hopes of Africans living between worlds. When Moki returns to his village from France wearing designer clothes and affecting all the manners of a Frenchman, Massala-Massala, who lives the life of a humble peanut farmer after giving up his studies, begins to dream of following in Moki's footsteps. Together, the two take wing for Paris, where Massala-Massala finds himself a part of an underworld of out-of-work undocumented immigrants. After a botched attempt to sell metro passes purchased with a stolen checkbook, he winds up in jail and is deported. Blue White Red is a novel of postcolonial Africa where young people born into poverty dream of making it big in the cities of their former colonial masters. Alain Mabanckou's searing commentary on the lives of Africans in France is cut with the parody of African villagers who boast of a son in the country of Digol.

About the Authors

Alain Mabanckou is the author of several prize-winning novels, including Mémoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine). Blue White Red is winner of the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire. He is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Alison Dundy lives in New York City and works as a librarian, archivist, and translator. She has also translated Sony Labou Tansi's Life and a Half (IUP, 2011).

Reviews

"Alain Mabanckou counts as one of the most successful voices of young African literature in the French language."—Ulrich Schreiber, Internationales literaturfestival berlin

"Alain Mabanckou can be defined as the 'clear guide' of a new generation of Congolese writers."—Infopagecongo

"Blue White Red stands at the beginning of the author's remarkable and multifaceted career as a novelist, essayist and poet...this debut novel shows much of his style and substance in remarkable ways...Dundy's translation is excellent."—Africa Book Club

"Mabanckou's provocative novel probes the many facets of the 'migration adventure,' including the shame that accompanies migrants home when their foreign sojourn ends in failure."—Booklist

"Mabanckou dazzles with technical dexterity and emotional depth. Vulnerability beckons in this masterful story about a world we always knew was too good to be true, yet reminds us that new skies appear and new seasons begin. (Starred review)"—Publishers Weekly
Indiana University Press
Global African Voices

9780253007919 : blue-white-red-mabanckou-dundy
Paperback / softback
168 Pages
$17.00 USD

Other Titles by Alain Mabanckou

The Negro Grandsons of Vercingetorix

Alain Mabanckou, OtherLe Serpent a plumes
Oct 2019 - Indiana University Press
$20.00 USD - Paperback / softback

The Tears of the Black Man

Alain Mabanckou, translated by Dominic Thomas, OtherLibrairie Artheme Fayard
Jul 2018 - Indiana University Press
$16.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles by Alison Dundy

Life and a Half

Sony Labou Tansi, translated by Alison Dundy, introduction by Dominic Thomas
Feb 2011 - Indiana University Press
$19.95 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles from Global African Voices

The Empire of Illusion

Aminata Sow Fall, translated by Meg Furniss Weisberg
Jul 2023 - Indiana University Press
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Commander of the River

Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, translated by Hope Campbell Gustafson
Apr 2023 - Indiana University Press
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$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback

39 Berne Street

Max Lobe, translated by Johanna McCalmont
Mar 2023 - Indiana University Press
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Other Titles in FICTION / General

The Stone Catchers

Laura Leigh Morris
Aug 2024 - University Press of Kentucky
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$25.00 USD - Electronic book text
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At The Breakers

Mary Ann Taylor-Hall
Apr 2022 - University Press of Kentucky
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$24.95 USD - Electronic book text
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The Words of My Roaring

Robert Kroetsch, introduction by Thomas Wharton
Jan 2022 - University of Alberta Press
$18.99 USD - Paperback / softback