Description
A Financial Times Best Book of 2024: Fiction in Translation
International Booker-nominated satirist GauZ’ returns with a panoramic journey into the colonization of the African interior.
Mourning the recent deaths of his parents, a young white man in nineteenth-century France joins a colonial expedition attempting to establish trading routes on the Ivory Coast and finds himself caught between factions who disagree on everything—except their shared loathing of the British.
A century later, a young Black boy born in Amsterdam gives his account, complete with youthful malapropisms, of his own voyage to the Ivory Coast, and his upbringing by his father, Comrade Papa, who teaches him to always fight “the yolk of capitalism.”
In exuberant, ingenious prose, GauZ’ superimposes their intertwined stories, looking across centuries and continents to reveal the long arc of African colonization.
Praise for Comrade Papa
“In Wynne’s nimble, playful translation . . . GauZ’ satirizes the historical record by intertwining fact and folk tale . . . Comrade Papa incorporates many small shards of history and storytelling into an overall gleaming mosaic”
—Nadifa Mohamed, New York Times
“GauZ’ avoids moralizing and is always alive to the humor and peculiarity of his stories. There are very funny scenes of the young Marxist speechifying to his unimpressed elders about the class struggle and the ‘retching of the earth.’ (Frank Wynne’s translation from the French shows a deft touch with Anouman’s malapropisms.)”
—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“A century-hopping, continent-spanning tale of colonialism and family ties.”
—Financial Times
“A funny, ebullient, often chaotic tale of French colonial exploitation of Ivory Coast . . . author GauZ’ was shortlisted for the International Booker prize for his [first] novel Standing Heavy. Comrade Papa is even better.”
—John Self, The Guardian
“Only a bold writer in command of their talent could take on such a perilous and vast subject and come out, with laughter and love, on top . . . If you are foolish enough to open this book with a set of assumptions about where it will go, prepare to be wrong-footed . . . Expect to see GauZ’ back on the shortlists with this superlative work of fiction.”
—Lara Pawson, Times Literary Supplement
“Comrade Papa is a fine, lively novel. GauZ’ writes well, in both the voices of the more adult and insightful Dabilly as well as that of the confident indoctrinated youngster (who nevertheless proves adaptable) . . . [T]he stories are very engaging, and engagingly told, with translator Wynne doing well in matching GauZ’ creative word- and language-play.”
—M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
“A funhouse mirror version of the colonial adventure story, Comrade Papa pokes, prods, & mocks a whole suite of ideologies & assumptions. GauZ’ has an exuberant, nimble style & an off-center imagination that will keep readers on their toes.”
—Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Electric Lit
“Mainly, the plot is a vehicle for the characters’ distinct voices . . . The result is a fresh and witty portrait of colonial and postcolonial Africa.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This is a beautifully written and translated book, incredibly unique in how it tackles colonialism and capitalism, and truly a fun book to read.”
—Alison Manley, The Seaboard Review
“GauZ’ breaks down the language of colonization . . . with marvelous linguistic invention. This book made me laugh and smile.”
—Gladys Marivat, Le Monde (Paris)
“The point of view transcends racial essentialisms to instead tell the story of people . . . An expansive novel that is political without being self-righteous.”
—Laurence Houot, France Télévision
“A novel about the clash between cultures and languages . . . GauZ’s prose is intoxicating.”
—Sean J. Rose, Livres Hebdo
“Audacious and inventive.”
—Baptiste Liger, Lire
Praise for Standing Heavy
“This book is about the anti-flâneurs: not the rich white men who roam the boulevards of Paris but poorly paid Black men whose jobs require them to stand still. As a security guard, the protagonist of Standing Heavy is invisible but sees everything. Told in a fragmentary style—as if from different camera angles—this is the story of colonialism and consumerism, of the specifics of power, and of the hope of the sixties diminishing as society turns cynical and corrupt.”
—International Booker Prize Judges’ citation
“This shrewd, episodic novel stars the security guards of Paris . . . undocumented Ivoirian immigrants whose watchful eyes examine Parisian turmoil over two generations.”
—New York Times
“A spry volume of 167 pages . . . that manages to trade heavily in politics while also sneaking up on your sympathy. I won’t spoil the end, but it startled me in its poignancy.”
—The Walrus
“A cunning observer and a disenchanted protestor, GauZ’ makes shopping an ethnological mine, a priceless sketch and a combat sport.”
—Elle
“This compact, humane satire, deftly translated by Frank Wynne, entertains as much as it informs.”
—Lucy Popescu, Financial Times
