Publishers Weekly
08/03/2020
Diop’s harrowing, nimbly translated English-language debut takes the form of a 20-year-old Senegalese soldier’s confession of his experience fighting for the French in the trenches during WWI. Alfa Ndaiye, conscripted in exchange for citizenship, spends hours squatting beside his mortally wounded best friend and fellow “Chocolat” Mademba Diop, who begs Ndaiye to show mercy and kill him. Ndaiye cannot bring himself to do so, and his aching regret (“Ah, Mademba! How I’ve regretted not killing you on the morning of the battle, while you were still asking me nicely, as a friend, with a smile in your voice!”) jump-starts a monologue of Ndaiye’s dive into mania. To the disturbance of Ndaiye’s commanding officer, Ndaiye begins claiming spoils from the “blue-eyed enemy”: their rifles and the hands that held them. The white French think he’s a “strange” Chocolat; while his fellow Chocolats call him a “dëmm, a devourer of souls.” It’s an intriguing racial dynamic, though the narrative is a bit aimless until Ndaiye is transferred to a field sanitarium. There, memories of a difficult childhood and delusions of a nurse’s desire for him add depth to Ndaiye’s narration, yet also spur him to commit one final heinous act in a brilliantly handled twist. Diop is sure to earn readers with this feverish exercise in psychological horror. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Beguiling . . . Diop realizes the full nature of war—that theater of macabre and violent drama—on the page. He takes his character into the depths of hell and lets him thrive there . . . As violent and disturbing as these encounters are, they are rendered with such artistic grace that one derives a strange pleasure in reading about even the bloodiest of nights." —Chigozie Obioma, The New York Times Book Review
"Astonishingly good." —Lily Meyer, NPR
"Harrowing . . . [At Night All Blood Is Black] confronts the historical image of Black soldiers by stretching barbarism to its ironic limits . . . What seems most pointed in Diop’s novel is its exploration of what it meant for West African men to fight side by side, and to grieve one another." —Emmanuel Iduma, The New York Review of Books
"Powerfully original . . . Unflinching in its exploration of the madness war can induce, Diop’s novella is a remarkable piece of writing." —Nick Rennison, The Times (London)
"The International Booker prize winner is a brilliant, shifting tale . . . [At Night All Blood Is Black] rewards rereading, which recasts the violent opening chapters in a new, even darker light . . . Quite unlike anything else." —John Self, The Observer
"As in many of the best novels of active combat . . . Diop accentuates tragedy with bitter irony . . . There is great beauty here. Diop’s sentences have a tidal quality, carrying in phrases worn smooth with repetition." —Jessi Jezewska Stevens, Foreign Policy
"[David Diop] conveys the overwhelming impact of wartime trauma on a bewildered young man in lyrical language, translated by [Anna] Moschovakis into rhythmic and dynamic English prose." —The Economist
"A stunning new novel about the plight of two Senegalese soldiers in the Great War offers a fresh perspective. It also introduces a singular talent . . . An immersive, propulsive read, one that searingly evokes the terrors of trench warfare, the relentless loss of life, and the irreparable damage inflicted on the human soul . . . Employing language that is, by turn, visceral and lyrical, Diop tells a devastating story of loss and inhumanity while enlarging our understanding of the war to end all wars." —Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune
"Heartbreaking and poetic . . . [At Night All Blood Is Black] addresses a story woefully absent from French history books – the inner life of African troops who fought in the French trenches in the first world war." —Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian
“Spare and devastating, At Night All Blood Is Black by French Senegalese author David Diop is a bone-chilling anti-war treatise . . . Resonates far beyond the geographic, political, racial and historical details . . . Diop has an ideal translator in Anna Moschovakis, who renders his prose into a gorgeously disturbing devolution of humanity. Overlapping bildungsroman, fever dream, morality tale and historical record, Diop creates an outstandingly affecting, genre-defying nightmare.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"One could recommend this novella by its name alone. Fortunately, what its evocative and ominous title hints at—a dark story told in lyrical prose—is more than delivered on in David Diop’s rhythmic, enchanting fiction (expertly translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis) . . . More than anything [Diop] shows just how slippery the self can be when individuals are placed within extraordinary, violent circumstances." —The A.V. Club
"With elegant brevity, Diop presents a world with no firm dividing line between courage and madness, murder and warfare; the most dedicated killers are awarded the Croix de Guerre. Alfa’s final transformation, as he attempts to atone for his guilt over the death of his friend, is unexpected, poetic — and chilling." —Suzi Feay, The Spectator
"Diop’s short but emotionally packed second novel illuminates an underreported chapter in French and Senegalese history. Part folklore, part existential howl, and part prose poem, it is a heartbreaking account of pointless suffering . . . A searing, eye-opening tale of innocence destroyed.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Musical . . . Harrowing . . . The novel veers toward a transcendent ending . . . Diop’s second novel is scalding, mesmerizing, and troubling in the best way. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] harrowing, nimbly translated English-language debut . . . Diop is sure to earn readers with this feverish exercise in psychological horror.” —Publishers Weekly
"An extraordinary novel, full of sadness, rage and beauty." —Sarah Waters, author of The Little Stranger
"David Diop’s All Blood is Black at Night is an unrelenting take on war, race, masculinity, and colonialism. Most of all, Diop’s short, sharp, and serrated novel is a visceral dramatization of how our humanity and inhumanity are forever intertwined." —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Sympathizer
"David Diop's At Night All Blood Is Black is a particularly pertinent reflection on the evils of war, as well as a profound exploration of the human soul." —J.M.G. Le Clézio, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
"This novel is a wonder. Written in a simple, almost naive, yet astonishing style, it speaks of the tragedy of the trenches with a moving delicacy. This is no war novel, but a book on what Montaigne called 'the solder of brotherhood.'" —Tahar Ben Jelloun, Le Point
"David Diop here erects a beautiful monument to the Senegalese riflemen, and seeks to restore their African dimension; to listen to them, to understand them." —Mathias Énard, Le Monde
Library Journal
★ 10/01/2020
"God's truth," says Alfa Ndiaye repeatedly, offering unexpected musical cadence to the harrowing tale he relates here. Along with "more-than-brother" Mademba Diop, Alfa is a Chocolat—an African soldier fighting with the French troops during World War I. When Mademba is mortally wounded, Alfa remains with him yet despite Mademba's pleas cannot bring himself to end his suffering. Thereafter, he decries his inhumanity in having dutifully listened to the voices of his ancestors rather than thinking for himself, a theme purveyed throughout the story. To avenge his friend—and exercise the sort of moral strength that initially failed him—Alfa takes to sneaking behind enemy lines at night, capturing a soldier, and cutting off his hand before dispatching him quickly. When he returns with the hands, his fellow soldiers initially greet him with awe but soon avoid him as a dëmm, a devourer of souls. Diop gracefully backtracks to the early friendship of the two men, with Alfa acknowledging his haughty behavior toward Mademba the morning of his death as the novel veers toward a transcendent ending for them both. VERDICT Paris-born, Senegalese-raised Diop's second novel is scalding, mesmerizing, and troubling in the best way. Highly recommended.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-07-14
Alfa Ndiaye, a young Senegalese man recruited into the French army as a rifleman, confronts the madness of World War I and his role in that madness.
The book opens on a note of anguish, with Alfa recalling his shameful inability to help his childhood friend Mademba Diop, who was eviscerated on the battlefield. Mademba begged Alfa to end his suffering by slitting his throat, but Alfa couldn't bring himself to do that to his "more-than-brother." Tormented by the failure, Alfa took it out on the enemy by sneaking across "pools of blood" every night to gut German soldiers with his machete. At first, Alfa's fellow "Chocolats," as they were known, were impressed by his boldness and cunning. But his strange practice of bringing back each victim's severed hand with the rifle it fired convinced them he was an evil sorcerer. Alfa, who had never previously stepped outside his village, tells of his beautiful mother, who abandoned him when he was a boy to search for her father, a shepherd, and never returned; Alfa's own father, who had three other wives; and the village chief's daughter, who risked her father's wrath by making love to Alfa before he went off to war because, as he says, "to die without knowing all of the pleasures of the body isn’t fair." French West African writer Diop's short but emotionally packed second novel illuminates an underreported chapter in French and Senegalese history. Part folklore, part existential howl, and part prose poem, it is a heartbreaking account of pointless suffering. Ultimately, Alfa is left wondering why his physical power can't translate into "peace, tranquility and calm." Though God is ever present in Alfa's thoughts, he can't help but ask why God "lags behind us."
A searing, eye-opening tale of innocence destroyed.
