Ramsès de Paris

The narrator of this novel, a young writer-in-training who is quite happy to be called Berado prince of Zamunda, lives under the wing and in the shadow of his older brother from the suburbs of Pointe-Noire, a certain Benoît, whom he came to join in Paris. The latter, an eccentric character, exercises his wit in the Château Rouge district. Nothing is entirely clear about his life, except that he knows how to charm, ladies first. He accumulates adventures of all kinds, until the day when he gets involved with Lilwenn, whom he soon marries.

To the great dismay of maman Mushama, the owner of the Manioc Pays restaurant. Everything is set for a mix-up. But the leads get tangled. Berado tries to turn the tables, and to impose his version of events he goes to Ramsès, the receptionist and bartender at the Salam Hôtel in the 11th arrondissement. His story begins, constantly interrupted, and soon he plunges into a strange wavering between dream and reality. Is it the effect of the tea served to him? In this novel that is both funny and sarcastic, Alain Mabanckou offers the Thousand and One Nights of African exile, whose colorful characters are sometimes sort of Pieds nickelés.

Sources

• fr.wikipedia.org : Alain Mabanckou
• Open Library : Alain Mabanckou