Comrade Papa

Author: Frank Wynne and GauZ

Paperback

A utterly absorbing, panoramic novel spanning two centuries and shining light on French colonialism in Cote d'Ivoire - by the author of Standing Heavy, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023

New

$32.06

Or pay later with

Free 30 day returns Secure transaction

Check delivery options

Paperback

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

Description

BY THE AUTHOR OF STANDING HEAVY - SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023

Following the death of his parents, Dabilly, a young white man, seeks a life of colonial adventure in Cote d'Ivoire. It is 1880 and Dabilly joins a beleaguered French general trying to set up trading routes into a coast as yet untouched by colonisation.

A century later, a Black boy born to communist parents in Amsterdam begins to research his family history. When he is sent to Cote d'Ivoire to visit his grandmother, he will discover traces of an ancestor he never knew existed.

GauZ' looks across continents and centuries to create a portrait of two very different men, tracing the paths and histories that connect them and plunging us deep into the history of colonisation in the Cote d'Ivoire.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Critic Reviews

Expect to see GauZ' back on the [International Booker] shortlist with this superlative work of fiction TLS
Funny, ebullient, often chaotic . . . GauZ' was shortlisted for the International Booker prize for his novel Standing Heavy. Comrade Papa is even better -- John Self Guardian
GauZ' breaks down the language of colonisation ... with marvellous linguistic invention. This book that made me laugh and smile is a post-colonial homage to Romain Gary's bestselling The Life Before Us Le Monde
History writ large is interwoven with family history voiced by a child narrator. This novel is a deftly built explosive device L'Express
The point of view transcends racial essentialisms to instead tell the story of people ... An expansive novel that is political without being self-righteous Culturebox
A novel about the clash between cultures and languages ... GauZ's prose is intoxicating Livres Hebdo
Audacious and inventive Lire

About the Author

GauZ' is an Ivorian author, journalist and screenwriter. After studying biochemistry, he moved to Paris as an undocumented student, working as a security guard before returning to the Cote d'Ivoire. His first novel, Standing Heavy, came out in 2014 and won the Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph, and was followed by Comrade Papa, which won the 2019 Prix Ethiophile, and Black Manoo. GauZ' is the editor-in-chief of the satirical economic newspaper News & co, and has written screenplays and documentary films.