The Lights of Pointe-Noire

A Memoir

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Emigration & Immigration, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou, The New Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Alain Mabanckou ISBN: 9781620971918
Publisher: The New Press Publication: September 13, 2011
Imprint: The New Press Language: English
Author: Alain Mabanckou
ISBN: 9781620971918
Publisher: The New Press
Publication: September 13, 2011
Imprint: The New Press
Language: English

A dazzling meditation on home-coming and belonging from one of “Africa’s greatest writers” and the Man Booker International Prize finalist (The Guardian).

Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, at the age of twenty-two, not to return until a quarter of a century later. When he finally came back to Pointe-Noire, a bustling port town on the Congo’s southwestern coast, he found a country that in some ways had changed beyond recognition: The cinema where, as a child, Mabanckou gorged on glamorous American culture had become a Pentecostal church, and his secondary school has been renamed in honor of a previously despised colonial ruler.

But many things remain unchanged, not least the swirling mythology of Congolese culture that still informs everyday life in Pointe-Noire. Now a decorated writer and an esteemed professor at UCLA, Mabanckou finds he can only look on as an outsider in the place where he grew up. As he delves into his childhood, into the life of his departed mother, and into the strange mix of belonging and absence that informs his return to the Republic of the Congo, his work recalls the writing of V. S. Naipaul and André Aciman, offering a startlingly fresh perspective on the pain of exile, the ghosts of memory, and the paths we take back home.

Grand Prize Winner at the 2015 French Voices Awards
“This is a beautiful book, the past hauntingly reentered, the present truthfully faced, and the translation rises gorgeously to the challenge.” —Salman Rushdie

“A tender, poetic chronicle of an exile’s return.” —Kirkus Reviews

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A dazzling meditation on home-coming and belonging from one of “Africa’s greatest writers” and the Man Booker International Prize finalist (The Guardian).

Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, at the age of twenty-two, not to return until a quarter of a century later. When he finally came back to Pointe-Noire, a bustling port town on the Congo’s southwestern coast, he found a country that in some ways had changed beyond recognition: The cinema where, as a child, Mabanckou gorged on glamorous American culture had become a Pentecostal church, and his secondary school has been renamed in honor of a previously despised colonial ruler.

But many things remain unchanged, not least the swirling mythology of Congolese culture that still informs everyday life in Pointe-Noire. Now a decorated writer and an esteemed professor at UCLA, Mabanckou finds he can only look on as an outsider in the place where he grew up. As he delves into his childhood, into the life of his departed mother, and into the strange mix of belonging and absence that informs his return to the Republic of the Congo, his work recalls the writing of V. S. Naipaul and André Aciman, offering a startlingly fresh perspective on the pain of exile, the ghosts of memory, and the paths we take back home.

Grand Prize Winner at the 2015 French Voices Awards
“This is a beautiful book, the past hauntingly reentered, the present truthfully faced, and the translation rises gorgeously to the challenge.” —Salman Rushdie

“A tender, poetic chronicle of an exile’s return.” —Kirkus Reviews

More books from The New Press

Cover of the book P.S. by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Kids for Cash by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Hell Is a Very Small Place by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Remembering Jim Crow by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book October by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book A People's History of Poverty in America by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book The Studs Terkel Reader by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Three By Echenoz by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Hell No by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Ending Poverty in America by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Bad News by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book Viviane by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book The Herb Kohl Reader by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book The Last Three Miles by Alain Mabanckou
Cover of the book The Dawn of Detroit by Alain Mabanckou
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy