Waberi, Abdourahman A
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1965- ) Djiboutian journalist and author, mostly in France from around 1985; Le Pays sans ombre (coll 1994; trans Jeanne Garane as The Land Without Shadows 2005) assembles nonfantastic stories set in his native land. He is of sf interest for Aux États-Unis d'Afrique: Roman (2006; trans David and Nicole Ball as In the United States of Africa 2009), an Alternate World tale whose history (there is no Jonbar Point) is in a sense a mirror reversal of our own. The flow of immigrants to a "Promised Land" has been from West to East, with America now a land where poverty and ignorance generate excuses for racist responses when its citizens become migrant. The Satire is clearcut, though conveyed with a saving Humour. [JC]
Abdourahman A Waberi
born Djibouti City, French Somaliland [now Republic of Djibouti]: 20 July 1965
works (selected)
- Le Pays sans ombre (Paris: Le Serpent à plumes, 1994) [coll: binding unknown/]
- The Land Without Shadows (University of Virginia Press, 2005) [coll: trans by Jeanne Garan of the above: hb/]
- Aux États-Unis d'Afrique: Roman (Paris: Jean-Claude Lattès, 2006) [binding unknown/]
- In the United States of Africa (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska/Bison Books, 2009) [trans by David and Nicole Ball of the above: introduction by Percival Everett: in the publisher's French Voices series: pb/]
links
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