Shoshanapnw's comments
(member since Jul 08, 2009)
Shoshanapnw's comments from the Great African Reads group.
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I've only found it in French (which I haven't used for many years).
Ideas: About Comoros: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth (the author spent half a year in Comoros plus two additional visits of unknown length.
By a Comorian: Une suite à Moroni Blues (available at amazon.fr).
Okay with me.
Seid will be a quick read.
My copy of Told by Starlight in Chad arrived, but I'm open to other suggestions if the group wants to read something different.I'd like to suggest Samanta Weinberg: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth for Comoros. It is the best match I can find in English (and at that, I had trouble finding copies of books in French).
Yes, preferably by someone who has lived there (this is my self-imposed rule). It doesn't have to be a native, but the closer I can get to a local writer, the better. I'll count Peace Corps workers or scientists if they spent at least two years in a country, or an ethnography or qualitative study that provides a print voice for local people. Here's a Comoran publishing house: KomEdit, http://rentf4holidays.net/
Unfortunately, French is a slog for me, though slog I shall if necessary. I'm playing around on Amazon.fr at the moment to see if I can get any of these books.
ETA: Une suite à Moroni Blues is available from France if I want to spend over 10 euro in shipping. I may wait on that. Here are 13 poems by a Comoran poet: http://www.adjmael-halidi.com/articles.p...
Possibly, but it's a pretty destitute country all around. ETA: In other words, I'm not seeing a lot of publication even by the government.
It's sometimes "Comoro," but it used to be a French possession under the same name. I've found reference to some materials in French but nothing translated into English. I've identified A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth as a book whose author spent a fair amount of time in the Comoros islands.
I was happy to find it, though it does me no good for Comoros!
I thought I'd start a separate thread for this topic. Here's one resource:
Literary Map of Africa: http://library.osu.edu/sites/aflitmap/af...
Thanks for the names. I dearly hope it doesn't come to that. I find it hard enough to read novels in Spanish, and my Spanish is much better than my French.
I'd hate to have to read a novel in my rusty, inadequate French, but that may be my only option for reading something from these countries. That, or finding book-length government-produced documents, which I'm not opposed to in theory. (For Palau in the South Pacific, I'm reading a long report on their educational objectives and curriculum design.)
Has anyone identified an author from these countries (not about them) who's translated into English? Any genre is fine. Thanks.
I had read it previously and I'm happy to discuss it. I'm doing a series of books from countries ending in "-stan" at the moment but I'd be happy to refresh my memory.
I've actually already read a book by a person from Burundi. I suggested it in the Burundi thread. I'm trying to understand how this group makes its decisions. My personal reading rule for countries is that to "count" for the country, the writer (or narrator, if it's an oral history or ethnography) has to have lived in the country.
I still don't understand the suggestion to skip countries so readily.For Cameroon, I've had Calixthe Beyala: Sun Hath Looked upon Me recommended by a couple of people.
Burundi: Gilbert Tuhabonye and Gary Brozek: This Voice in My Heart: A Genocide Survivor's Story of Escape, Faith, and Forgiveness
Hey you all, I'll probably talk to you in March. I'm headed out of the country to work for a month and I won't have time to visit goodreads, but I'm looking forward to the March discussion.
