Senegalese French WWI Novel Wins Booker International Prize
At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Moschovakis, has won the Booker International Prize. The £50,000 prize will be split between the author and translator. The book is published in the U.S. by FSG.
At Night All Blood Is Black captures the tragedy of a young man's mind hurtling towards madness and tells the little-heard story of the Senegalese who fought for France on the Western Front during the First World War.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, chair of the judges, said: "This story of warfare and love and madness has a terrifying power. The protagonist is accused of sorcery, and there is something uncanny about the way the narrative works on the reader. We judges agreed that its incantatory prose and dark, brilliant vision had jangled our emotions and blown our minds. That it had cast a spell on us."
