Life and a Half

A Novel

By: Sony Labou Tansi, Alison Dundy (Translator)

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Paperback | 1 December 2010

At a Glance

Paperback
150 Pages

Age
22+

Grade
17+

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 14.2 x 1.1

Paperback

$35.20

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Listed as one of the 100 best books on Africa, Life and a Half was Sony Labou Tansi's response to the death of close friends during a bloody military and political crackdown in Congo. The novel takes place in an imaginary African country run by the latest in a series of cannibalistic dictators who has captured Martial, the leader of the opposition, and his family. Though shot, knifed, butchered, and bled, Martial's spirit lives on to guide his followers in their fight against the dictators. Facing censorship, Tansi insisted that his book was a fable and that if he were ever given the opportunity to write about real events, he would be much more direct rather than follow the torturous paths of a novel. This crisp translation by Alison Dundy maintains the fast-paced action and bitingly satiric tone of the original.

Industry Reviews

"...a useful reminder of the greater depth of the African canon, and of the literary gems to be found in francophone Africa... Sony Labou Tansi's Life and a Half seethes with the violence and disappointment of the turbulent post-independence period in his native Congo. The setting is fictional; but the novel was written after the real-life execution of several of the author's friends, who have been accused of planning a coup. Life and a Half is a rejection of dictatorship - carried to astonishing lengths... The relentless satire is so angry, and so startling it is not always easy to read - but as his great Congolese successor Alain Mabanckou has written, Life and a Half was one of the "founders of the new francophone literature"." James Copnall, The Times Literary Supplement "Life and a Half is a place and a time of half-death -- or, if one prefers, half-life. It is a place where life and death are so entangled that it is no longer possible to distinguish them, or to say what is on the side of the shadow or its obverse." Achille Mbembe

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