The Oldest Orphan

Tierno Monénembo was among the African authors invited to Rwanda after the 1994 Tutsi-Hutu massacre to “write genocide into memory.” In his novel The Oldest Orphan, that is precisely what Monénembo does, to devastating effect. Powerful testimony to an unspeakable historical reality, this story is told by an adolescent on death row in a prison in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Dispassionately, almost cynically, the teenager Faustin tells his tale, alternating between his days in jail, his adventures wandering the countryside after his parents and most of the people of his village have been massacred, and his escapades as a cheerful hoodlum in the streets of Kigali. Only slowly does the full horror of his parents’ death and his own experience return to Faustin. His realization strikes the reader with shattering force, for it carries in its wake the impossible but inescapable questions presented by such a murderous episode of history and such a crippling experience for a child, a people, and a nation.

Literature & Fiction

Monénembo, Tierno

United States

University Of Nebraska Press

Tierno Monénembo was among the African authors invited to Rwanda after the 1994 Tutsi-Hutu massacre to “write genocide into memory.” In his novel The Oldest Orphan, that is precisely what Monénembo does, to devastating effect. Powerful testimony to an unspeakable historical reality, this story is told by an adolescent on death row in a prison in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Dispassionately, almost cynically, the teenager Faustin tells his tale, alternating between his days in jail, his adventures wandering the countryside after his parents and most of the people of his village have been massacred, and his escapades as a cheerful hoodlum in the streets of Kigali. Only slowly does the full horror of his parents’ death and his own experience return to Faustin. His realization strikes the reader with shattering force, for it carries in its wake the impossible but inescapable questions presented by such a murderous episode of history and such a crippling experience for a child, a people, and a nation.

Bison Books

Tierno Monenembo's The King of Kahel was originally published in France in 2008 and was the winner of the French literary prize, the prix Renaudot, which is awarded to the author of an outstanding original novel. Loosely based on the life of Olivier de Sanderval, a man who journeyed to Guinea to build an empire by conquering the hostile region of Fouta Djallon, the book exposes how Sanderval braves all dangers to build a railway that will bring modern civilization to Africa.

The King of Kahel

Contemporary

Amazon Crossing

The Black Terrorist is a fictional account built around the true, extraordinary, but little-known story of Addi Bâ. Addi Bâ was born in Guinea about 1916, brought to France in the late 1930s, and became a riflemen in the Twelfth Regiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais (African soldiers from French colonies) fighting for France during World War II. Captured after the Battle of the Meuse, Addi escapes from German forces, wanders in the forests, before finding refuge in a village in the Vosges, where he encounters the French Resistance and becomes a leader of a Resistance network. However, Addi is captured, tortured, and executed in December 1943. His military exploits against the Germans earned him the name “the black terrorist.” The story of Addi Bâ is told sixty years later from a number of perspectives, though largely from Germaine Tergoresse, who was a young girl during the war, now eighty years old relating her memories to Bâ’s nephew. But who betrayed Addi Bâ? One of its many lovers? A professional collaborator? Or just the rivalry between the Tergoresses and the Rapennes, two families who have been feuding since the First World War? This African and Muslim fighter of Free France was awarded the Medal of the Resistance in 2003, sixty years after his execution. The Black Terrorist (Le terroriste noir) was awarded the Erckmann-Chatrian Prize in 2012, and both the Palatine Grand Prize and the Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2013.

The Black Terrorist

Genre Fiction

Diasporic Africa Press

L’indépendance de leur pays avait donné aux personnages l’espoir d’un avenir meilleur. C’était sans compter Sâ Matraq, qui les gouverne en despote. Les espoirs de développement et de démocratie ont cédé la place à un régime policier, approvisionné par des contrebandiers.

Les crapauds-brousse: Roman (French Edition)

Editions Du Seuil

Peuls

SEUIL

L'Aîné des orphelins

Le Roi de Kahel

Le Terroriste noir est une fiction construite autour de la véritable histoire, aussi méconnue qu’extraordinaire, d’Addi Bâ, jeune Guinéen né vers 1916, adopté en France à l’âge de treize ans et affecté dans le 12e régiment des tirailleurs sénégalais pendant la Seconde Guerre. Capturé après la bataille de la Meuse, Addi s’évade, erre dans les forêts, avant d’être recueilli par le maire du village de Romaincourt. Élégant et mystérieux, à la fois austère et charmeur, il y fera sensation. En 1942, il entre en contact avec la Résistance et crée le premier maquis des Vosges. Les Allemands le surnommeront « le terroriste noir ». L’affaire est racontée soixante ans plus tard, dans un français mâtiné de patois vosgien, par celle qui n’était qu’une jeune fille à l’époque; c’est chez ses parents que le tirailleur venait écouter Radio-Londres, c’est chez eux qu’il prenait ses repas et faisait laver son linge. Qui a trahi Addi Bâ? Une de ses nombreuses amantes? Un collabo professionnel? Parce qu’il était noir, ce combattant de la France libre n’a reçu la médaille de la Résistance qu’en 2003, soit soixante ans après son exécution.

Le Terroriste noir

Le Roi de Kahel - Prix Renaudot 2008 (CADRE ROUGE) (French Edition)

Le Seuil

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Books by Monénembo, Tierno

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Monénembo, Tierno. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Oldest Orphan

The Oldest Orphan

The King of Kahel

The Black Terrorist

Les crapauds-brousse: Roman (French Edition)

Peuls

L'Aîné des orphelins

Le Roi de Kahel

Le Terroriste noir

Le Roi de Kahel - Prix Renaudot 2008 (CADRE ROUGE) (French Edition)