The King of Kahel

Tierno Monénembo · 2008 CE · Novel · West African · Contemporary

In the 1880s a Lyon industrialist, Aimé Olivier de Sanderval, sets out for the Fouta Djallon in what is now Guinea, determined to make himself king of a land he barely understands. Monénembo, a Guinean writing in French, retells the colonial adventure with ironic sympathy for the man and fuller attention to the people he meets. It won the Prix Renaudot in 2008.

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