Now that I have read this in English I need to get my hands on a copy of the original French version! It wasn’t until I read the first few pages that I realized that it must have originally been written in French, and I started hearing Michel’s voice in French… I wish it weren’t so difficult to get French novels here in the US. 

Anyway! This book is just gorgeous, and if it doesn’t make your heart ache then I think you may need to get it checked. The Death of Comrade President takes place over several days in 1977 in the city of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo. The narrator, Michel, is a young boy of the age of 12, and everything that happens during those few days comes directly from what he sees, what he knows, and how he interprets everything. On the surface the book reads like a play by play of several days in Michel’s life, the sentences following his train of thought, and his tendency to daydream. But the plot is a lot more than that: through Michel the author provides a detailed overview of the independence of the Republic of Congo, of the different coups and political events that have happened before 1977, and then of the assassination of Comrade President Marien Ngouabi, amongst other worldwide events.

This assassination affects Michel’s family in ways that he would never have thought, and as he navigates through different revelations he realizes that he has to change the way he has been taught to act and to think about things in order for his life to go back to normal.

The Death of Comrade President is hilarious in parts, terrifying in others, and Alain Mabanckou writes in such a way that you can’t help laughing out loud in places, and admiring how brilliant his prose is. There is the surface, and there is Michel’s interpretation, and there is what the author is trying to tell you, and altogether it is just brilliant. I burst into tears at the end and wished there was more, because I had become so fond of Michel and his daydreaming that I wasn’t ready for him to have to grow up so fast.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the author weaves internal country politics with those from other countries, as well as events in other places happening around the same time. It made for a super interesting and educational read. I’m going to look for more of Alain Mabanckou’s work now because The Death of Comrade President is just wonderful! 

Thanks to The New Press and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.