Dealing with the Dead (Paperback)

Author of International Booker Prize-longlisted Black Moses

Alain Mabanckou

From one of Africa's most celebrated novelists: a ghostly reckoning with Congolese history for readers of Lincoln in the Bardo

'One of Africa's greatest living writers' Guardian

'Sharp and entertaining' Times Literary Supplement

'Exuberant ... Dealing with the Dead is often damning, frequently hilarious and always compassionate' Financial Times

Abruptly deceased at the age of twenty-four and trapped forever in flared purple trousers, Liwa Ekimakingaï encounters the other residents of Frère Lachaise cemetery, all of whom have their own complex stories of life and death.

Unwilling to relinquish their tender bond, Liwa makes his way back home to Pointe-Noire to see his devoted grandmother one last time, against all spectral advice. But disturbing rumours swirl together with Liwa's jumbled memories of his last night on earth, leading him to pursue the riddle of his own untimely demise. A phantasmagorical tale of ambition, community and forces beyond human control, Dealing with the Dead is a scathing satire on corruption and political violence by one of the foremost chroniclers of modern Central Africa.

'Africa's Samuel Beckett' Economist

Translated from the French by Helen Stevenson

Publication date: 16/01/2025

£14.99

ISBN: 9781800817708

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Subject: Biography & Memoir, Fiction

Translator: Helen Stevenson

Dealing with the Dead (Ebook)

Author of International Booker Prize-longlisted Black Moses

Alain Mabanckou

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From one of Africa's most celebrated novelists: a ghostly reckoning with Congolese history for readers of Lincoln in the Bardo

'One of Africa's greatest living writers' Guardian

'Sharp and entertaining' Times Literary Supplement

'Exuberant ... Dealing with the Dead is often damning, frequently hilarious and always compassionate' Financial Times

Abruptly deceased at the age of twenty-four and trapped forever in flared purple trousers, Liwa Ekimakingaï encounters the other residents of Frère Lachaise cemetery, all of whom have their own complex stories of life and death.

Unwilling to relinquish their tender bond, Liwa makes his way back home to Pointe-Noire to see his devoted grandmother one last time, against all spectral advice. But disturbing rumours swirl together with Liwa's jumbled memories of his last night on earth, leading him to pursue the riddle of his own untimely demise. A phantasmagorical tale of ambition, community and forces beyond human control, Dealing with the Dead is a scathing satire on corruption and political violence by one of the foremost chroniclers of modern Central Africa.

'Africa's Samuel Beckett' Economist

Translated from the French by Helen Stevenson

Publication date: 16/01/2025

£12.99

ISBN: 9781800817722

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Subject: Biography & Memoir, Fiction

Translator: Helen Stevenson

Alain Mabanckou

Alain Mabanckou

Alain Mabanckou's seven previous novels, including African Psycho, are all published by Serpent's Tail. Mabanckou teaches at UCLA, is a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and was awarded the Académie Française's Grand Prix de littérature. Black Moses was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

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