This is the first time a Frenchman has won this award, awarded to foreign books translated and published during the year in the UK or Ireland. David Diop is 55 years old. Born in Paris, he grew up in Senegal.
Brotherhood of Soul is the story of a Senegalese rifle from World War I, Alfa Ndiaye. In a more absurd and dangerous attack than anyone else, Alfa’s childhood friend Mademba is injured. Dying, Mademba asks his soul brother, his brother in his arms to finish him off. But Alfa can not do that.
David Diop’s book appeared in France three years ago and has already won the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and the Swiss Ahmadou Kourouma award.
For David Diop, the awarding of the Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world, shows that “literature has no boundaries”. Neither color would be tempted to add. In its English version, the title of the novel is translated as follows: “At night all the blood is black”.
Translator Anna Moschovakis, also a renowned poet, shares with David Diop the 58,000 euros of this prize, one of the few that rewards the great role of translators.
►To read also: African literature with French expressions: the boom years
►To listen: David Diop, soul brother
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