African Psycho - Softcover

Mabanckou, Alain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933368500 ISBN 13: 9781933368504

Publisher: Soft Skull Press, 2007

Synopsis

Its title recalls Bret Easton Ellis’s infamous book, but while Ellis’s narrator was a blank slate, African Psycho’s protagonist is a quivering mass of lies, neuroses, and relentless internal chatter. Gregoire Nakobomayo, a petty criminal, has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine. He’s planned the crime for some time, but still, the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation. Luckily, he has a mentor to call on, the far more accomplished serial killer Angoualima. The fact that Angoualima is dead doesn’t prevent Gregoire from holding lengthy conversations with him. Little by little, Gregoire interweaves Angoualima’s life and criminal exploits with his own. Continuing with the plan despite a string of botched attempts, Gregoire’s final shot at offing Germaine leads to an abrupt unraveling. Lauded in France for its fresh and witty style, African Psycho’s inventive use of language surprises and relieves the reader by injecting humor into this disturbing subject.

About this title

Product Description:

Rare Book

Review:

Taxi Driver for Africa's blank generation... a pulp fiction vision of Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth that somehow manages to be both frightening and self-mocking at the same time (Time Out New York)

A smart satire on the deserving targets of corrupt officialdom, complacent media and blank-eyed consumerism (New Internationalist)

Disturbing - and disturbingly funny ... although the title invokes American Psycho, the book owes more to Dostoyevsky and Camus (New Yorker)

About this edition

• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1933368500
• ISBN 13: 9781933368504
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176