David Diop & Anna Moschovakis win the 2021 International Booker Prize

04 June 2021 - 18:12 By jonathan ball publishers
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'At Night All Blood is Black' was originally in published in 2018 as 'Frère d'âme'.
'At Night All Blood is Black' was originally in published in 2018 as 'Frère d'âme'.
Image: Supplied

At Night All Blood is Black by French author David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis, has been announced as the winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Diop is the first French novelist, and first writer of African heritage, to be awarded the International Booker Prize. 

About the book:

Alfa and Mademba are two of the many Senegalese soldiers fighting in the Great War. Together they climb dutifully out of their trenches to attack France's German enemies whenever the whistle blows, until Mademba is wounded, and dies in a shell hole with his belly torn open.

Without his more-than-brother, Alfa is alone and lost amid the savagery of the conflict. He devotes himself to the war, to violence and death, but soon begins to frighten even his own comrades in arms. How far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

At Night All Blood is Black is a hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness.


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