Black Bazaar by Alain Mabanckou
Originally from Congo, living in Paris for fifteen years, in love with three-button Italian collars and Weston shoes, the narrator is a kind of African dandy who sees his life switch overnight when his companion leaves him to follow a compatriot who plays the tamtam in a group that is not known in France, “including Monaco and Corsica”. He now splits his time between his typewriter and Jip’s, a bar in the 1st arrondissement frequented by most of his friends, truculent characters with unforgettable names.
Everyone thinks he started writing to drown his grief and express his anger. In fact, it is the diary of a rebellious man that he undertakes to write, crying with sarcasm and sarcasm the madness of the world around him.
A novel with wild verve, turning its back on the conveniences and the received ideas, by one of the major voices of the current French-speaking literature.
