Research Catalog

When the plums are ripe

Title
When the plums are ripe / Patrice Nganang ; translated from the French by Amy B. Reid.
Author
Nganang, Alain Patrice
Publication
  • New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
  • ©2013

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library Sc E 19-1515Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Additional Authors
Reid, Amy Baram, 1964-
Description
348 pages : illustration, map; 24 cm
Summary
In Cameroon, plum season is a highly anticipated time of year. But for the narrator of When the Plums Are Ripe, the poet Pouka, the season reminds him of the "time when our country had discovered the root not so much of its own violence as that of the world's own, and, in response, had thrown its sons who at that time were called Senegalese infantrymen into the desert, just as in the evenings the sellers throw all their still-unsold plums into the embers." In this novel of radiant lyricism, Patrice Nganang recounts the story of Cameroon's forced entry into World War II, and in the process complicates our own understanding of that globe-spanning conflict. After the fall of France in 1940, Cameroon found itself caught between Vichy and the Free French at a time when growing nationalism advised allegiance to neither regime, and was ultimately dragged into fighting throughout North Africa on behalf of the Allies.Moving from Pouka's story to the campaigns of the French general Leclerc and the battles of Kufra and Murzuk, Nganang questions the colonial record and recenters African perspectives at the heart of Cameroon's national history, all the while writing with wit and panache. When the Plums Are Ripe is a brilliantly crafted, politically charged epic that challenges not only the legacies of colonialism but also the intersections of language, authority, and history itself.
Uniform Title
Saison des prunes. English
Alternative Title
Saison des prunes.
Subject
  • Cameroon > Colonization > History > 20th century > Fiction
  • France > Colonies > History > Cameroon > Fiction
Genre/Form
  • Novels.
  • Historical fiction.
Language (note)
  • Translated from the French.
Call Number
Sc E 19-1515
ISBN
  • 9780374288990
  • 0374288992
LCCN
  • 2018060813
  • 40029360839
OCLC
1053584221
Author
Nganang, Alain Patrice, author.
Title
When the plums are ripe / Patrice Nganang ; translated from the French by Amy B. Reid.
Publisher
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
Copyright Date
©2013
Edition
First American edition.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Language
Translated from the French.
Local Note
Schomburg copy with dust jacket.
Local Subject
Black author.
Added Author
Reid, Amy Baram, 1964- translator.
Other Standard Identifier
40029360839
Research Call Number
Sc E 19-1515
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