Added by 1 member
Paris, 2018. Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book titled The Maze of Inhumanity. It has an immediate hold over him. No one knows what happened to the author, T.C. Elimane, who was accused of plagiarism, his reputation destroyed by the critics.
Obsessed with discovering the truth about Elimane's disappearance, Faye weaves past and present, countries and continents, following the author's labyrinthine trail from Senegal to Argentina and France and confronting the great tragedies of history.
Will he get to the truth at the centre of the maze?
A gripping literary quest novel and a masterpiece of perpetual reinvention, The Most Secret Memory of Men confronts the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism, the holocaust in Europe, dictatorships in South America and the Caribbean, genocide in Africa, and collaboration and resistance everywhere. Above all, it is a love song to literature and its timeless power.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Obsessed with discovering the truth about Elimane's disappearance, Faye weaves past and present, countries and continents, following the author's labyrinthine trail from Senegal to Argentina and France and confronting the great tragedies of history.
Will he get to the truth at the centre of the maze?
A gripping literary quest novel and a masterpiece of perpetual reinvention, The Most Secret Memory of Men confronts the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism, the holocaust in Europe, dictatorships in South America and the Caribbean, genocide in Africa, and collaboration and resistance everywhere. Above all, it is a love song to literature and its timeless power.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"More than an engrossing investigation into the mysterious author of a cursed book, Sarr's magnificent novel also offers a profound reflection on the resonance of literature in our lives." - David Diop
"A powerful book, crossed by an epic breath that celebrates the power of literature." - Alain Mabanckou
"An ingeniously constructed, ferociously intelligent literary detective novel in the tradition of Roberto Bolano and Jorge Luis Borges. In The Most Secret Memory of Men, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr adds to the West's fascination with canonization, cult books, and their absent authors, but with a resolutely postcolonial twist. His comic, piercing, multifaceted story politicizes the tendency of Europe's literary establishment to tokenize and then erase marginalized authors. A brilliant, labyrinthine, highly entertaining page-turner, rightly cemented as a contemporary masterpiece by the Prix Goncourt." - Dimitri Nasrallah
"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?" - Blaise Ndala
"Thanks to translator Lara Vergnaud, English-language readers can seamlessly experience Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's pyrotechnic prose. A labyrinth of a novel, The Most Secret Memory of Men is as enthralling as it is thought-provoking. Sarr is a writer that comes along once in a lifetime." - Eric Nguyen
"Captivating, precise, sensual prose. A book that will stir your emotions and make you think. A love letter to literature, this novel is already a classic and it will haunt you." - Leïla Slimani
"A powerful book, crossed by an epic breath that celebrates the power of literature." - Alain Mabanckou
"An ingeniously constructed, ferociously intelligent literary detective novel in the tradition of Roberto Bolano and Jorge Luis Borges. In The Most Secret Memory of Men, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr adds to the West's fascination with canonization, cult books, and their absent authors, but with a resolutely postcolonial twist. His comic, piercing, multifaceted story politicizes the tendency of Europe's literary establishment to tokenize and then erase marginalized authors. A brilliant, labyrinthine, highly entertaining page-turner, rightly cemented as a contemporary masterpiece by the Prix Goncourt." - Dimitri Nasrallah
"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?" - Blaise Ndala
"Thanks to translator Lara Vergnaud, English-language readers can seamlessly experience Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's pyrotechnic prose. A labyrinth of a novel, The Most Secret Memory of Men is as enthralling as it is thought-provoking. Sarr is a writer that comes along once in a lifetime." - Eric Nguyen
"Captivating, precise, sensual prose. A book that will stir your emotions and make you think. A love letter to literature, this novel is already a classic and it will haunt you." - Leïla Slimani
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's The Most Secret Memory of Men