Novels
Blaise Ndala recommends
The Most Secret Memory of Men (2023)
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
"I thought I'd come to terms with the spellbinding style of this young prodigy of Senegalese literature. That was until I came across his most luminous, vertiginous, and cerebral novel, The Most Secret Memory of Men. Sprinkled with flashes of rare purity, this is a high-flying reflection on the art of writing as well as the freedom and solitude it brings to the writer. Here comes an investigation about a cursed author, in which not one style, but many styles are woven together to give birth to a masterpiece of pure wonder. Sarr has written a political, funny, and sensual work of fiction that readers will devour like detective fiction with an esoteric flavor. It's also a compelling journey into the dark pages of History, as well as to the heart of a question that lives in all those who can't live without books: What can literature do while so many events constantly beset us?"
