Francophone African books are still very often published by French imprints, which can make them hard to get at home. But there is a growing push for changeWhen Cameroonian author Daniel Alain Nsegbe first saw his debut novel for sale in his home city of Douala, the price was so high “you would have to ask someone to stop eating for two days in order to buy the book”. It was around 16,000 CFA francs (£20); the average monthly salary in Douala is £150. The book, Ceux qui sortent dans la nuit (Those Who Go Out at Night) was published by Grasset, a French imprint.This is not uncommon: Francophone African authors, whether classic or contemporary, are often published by French, not African presses. This arrangement began in colonial times, but continues because of a number of factors that are particular to France. Publishers frequently push for world rights for all books written in French. Many African writers operate without agents, who would usually divide up rights territories on their behalf. Agents are still a new feature on the African literary landscape, meaning that many classics, such as 1953’s L’enfant noir (The African Child) by Guinean author Camara Laye, and Algerian writer Kateb Yacine’s 1956 novel Nedjma, are owned by publishers in France (Plon and Éditions du Seuil respectively). As French publishers continue to control distribution and pricing, classic authors go missing from bookshelves while contemporary authors struggle to get their books in the hands of... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-14 09:59:14 UTC ]
At once subversive and searching, the debut novel focuses on two sisters on the run whose roots lie in an unnamed country “from beyond the ocean.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-06 20:54:23 UTC ]
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Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot,' a surreal debut novel set in the parched Central Valley, depicts a fundamentalist rain cult and sex worker resisters. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-04-06 14:30:59 UTC ]
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Seven Dials has won world rights at auction to Lost Without You, a book from the footballer turned actor Vinnie Jones about coping with the loss of his wife, Tanya, after her six-year battle with cancer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-02 12:09:30 UTC ]
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Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut novel envisions an archipelago of Indigenous peoples who refuse to be erased. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-03-31 12:43:39 UTC ]
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The debut novel intersperses the story of a tech reporter in Silicon Valley with Facebook posts, tweets, Google results and other fragments. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Take solace in works such as ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ ‘Walden’ and more. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-25 13:00:00 UTC ]
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In Megan Giddings’s debut novel Lakewood, desperation leads to a loss of self in a capitalist medical system bent on taking advantage of Black people and their bodies. After the death of her grandmother, Lena, a college student struggling with overwhelming medical debt and taking care of her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-03-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Head of Zeus is to publish the debut novel of Nicole Kennedy, a former city lawyer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-23 14:35:00 UTC ]
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“My Dark Vanessa” will strike a chord with women. But it ought to be read by men Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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MARA FAYE LETHEM is one of the translators of Albert Sánchez Piñol, a Catalan writer whose debut novel Cold Skin, a sparse psychological thriller, caused a sensation in Spain. Lethem also translated Piñol’s second novel, Pandora in the Congo, a fabulist tale that is by turns laugh-out-loud funny... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-03-19 19:00:32 UTC ]
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“My Dark Vanessa” will strike a chord with women. But it ought to be read by men Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-03-19 15:48:46 UTC ]
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TFW you didn't love the debut novel and are completely taken by surprise when you fall head over heels for that same author's second book. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-19 10:35:57 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Publishing has won Imogen Crimp’s debut novel, The High Notes, in a four-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-17 18:04:44 UTC ]
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Hilary Leichter’s destabilizing debut novel imagines a productivity-centric dystopia, not far off. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2020-03-13 14:00:59 UTC ]
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Wildfire has acquired an authoratative and accessible narrative history, The Persians, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones in a "major" deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-13 12:24:56 UTC ]
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My novel The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida is a story of how a young woman’s unexplained suicide shapes and transforms the lives of those she left behind. It’s a literary mystery with elements of magical realism set in Japan, not unlike my debut novel Rainbirds. Because of these, I am often... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-03-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker has "swiftly pre-empted" debut novel Highway Blue from Ailsa McFarlane, a 23-year-old writer who had never shown her work before sending it to agents. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-08 18:43:41 UTC ]
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Film rights to Richard Osman’s debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club (Viking), have been snapped up by Amblin Partners in a 14-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-05 16:08:49 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has won Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl, a satirical debut novel about race and authenticity in the workplace, for a six-figure deal following a nine-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-01 20:26:38 UTC ]
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This week's book events are fully locavore: Lynell George's essays on the city's rich cultural tapestry; Erin Khar's memoir of teen addiction in the mid-1980s; Thomas Pynchon's Cali counterculture noir; a debut novel from Los Angeles Review of Books founder Tom Lutz; and a visit from Pod Save... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-02-28 19:52:47 UTC ]
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