Blue White Red

“Mabanckou dazzles with technical dexterity and emotional depth” in his debut novel, winner of the Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Afrique Noire (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

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.

Praise for Alain Mabanckou and Blue White Red

“Mabanckou counts as one of the most successful voices of young African literature.” —Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin

“The African Beckett.” —The Economist

“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.’” —Booklist

© 2013 Indiana University Press (Ebook): 9780253007940

Translators: Alison Dundy

Release date

Ebook: 21 February 2013