Explicación de la Noche

by Edem Awumey

"Ito Baraka se está muriendo. En Hull, lejos del sol, en la húmeda oscuridad de ese piso miserable que comparte con su compañera Kimi, india autóctona y yonqui.
Pero antes de morir ha de terminar ese libro. Esa novela en la que narra acontecimientos que transcurren en un país donde el sol abrasa. Abrasa la piel, abrasa el cerebro, abrasa la retina de aquellos a quienes se obliga a mirarlo sin pestañear. En un país en el que brilla asimismo otro sol, el de un dictador presa del miedo."

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, African Literature, Togo, Africa, 21st Century, Novels

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Togolese-Canadian author

Reviews

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un tren cruza la noche invernal del Quebec; Ito Bataka está volviendo a su hogar, un subsuelo con connotaciones suicidas, sólo iluminado por el amor y los tiernos pechos de Kimi, también quebrada, vencida, pero aún capaz de amar.

Hubo, en algún momento de la vida de Ito, alegría y la euforia universitaria de amigos y libros en su tierra natal, en Lomé; con sueños de libertad e igualdad, manifestaciones. Y también hubo en tiempo del fin de esa ilusión, de un cielo negro cargado de plomo. Y hubo también, en los momentos más oscuros, un hombre ciego, un amigo, un padre, con la sabiduría de la vida y los libros, la alegría y la esperanza de cada día.

¿Cuánto dolor puede cargar una persona sin quebrarse? ¿Cuándo lo dejarán en paz la memoria, la culpa, la decepción y le permitan ser libre?

Una novela dura, dolorosa, que tiene puntos de encuentro con las de Imre Kertesz o Primo Levi. Contada alternando los tiempos para que evitar la asfixia, y alternando también la primera y la tercera persona hasta el punto en que resulta indiferente quien cuenta.

La había comenzado a leer sin muchas expectativas, y me encontré con una riqueza y una profundidad que no esperaba.
Excelente.

Edem Awumey (Togo, 1975) nació y estudió en Lomé, capital de Togo. Luego de sus estudios de postgrado en Francia se radicó en el Quebec, Canadá, donde ejerce como docente universitario.

[Libros Prohibidos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovación para Edem Awumey por haberme tendido la trampa de la realidad en sus palabras, porque el testimonio de Ito Baraka es tan verosímil que uno puede perfectamente olvidarse de cualquier aviso previo, porque en cada página de Explicación de la noche uno puede encontrar innumerables motivos para seguir leyendo, aunque duela, porque esta novela duele, y eso dice mucho, y muy bueno, de ella.
Reseña completa: http://www.libros-prohibidos.com/edem...

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sure there’s an audience that will adore this book but I’m not one of them. This is one of those stories that gets lost in the poetic yet pretentious prose. The choppy and over descriptive writing sounded beautiful and lulling on the audiobook but made it difficult to dig into the plot. There were moments of clarity in which the MC, Ito, shares memories of violence, torture and abuse of power in his native African.country. These experiences then shape his future as an alcoholic and failed playwright living in Canada years later.

The story itself is sad, tragic and heartbreaking with some graphic scenes that will most likely offer an emotional punch to even seasoned readers. Overall, it is a story that will resonate with readers who enjoy descriptive lyrical prose who are looking for a haunting and atmospheric historical fiction.

I received an advanced audio copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Lisa Nikolits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book just blew me away. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness meets The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan's Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize) meets The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño.

Bleak, yes, with its visceral descriptions of man's unfathomably extensive ability to torture and destroy his fellowmen.

The poetical lyricism of the work intensifies the power of the horror of the story being told. The prose is an unflinching spotlight that shines directly into that morass of unspeakable events.

One of the most powerful works I have read this year. Let's try to give this book the attention I truly feel it deserves.

And kudos to the translators, Phyllis Aronoff & Howard Scott. A wonderful job.

[Paco Serrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Víctima de una enfermedad, Ito Baraka decide escribir la historia que lo obligó a exhiliarse de su país de origen 20 años atrás. Con mucho dolor el protagonista cuenta los esfuerzos de un coletivo que protestó contra el dictador africano que sometía a su pueblo.

Novela sobrecogedora que nos acerca al horror que vive la gente que desafía a los gobiernos militares y despóticos.

"Ito Baraka desgrana en su mente los nombres de esas revoluciones acaecidas en este siglo y en el anterior. Revoluciones a las que les endilgaron un apelativo imposible de olvidar: la roja, la naranja, la de los claveles, la árabe, la francesa, la castrista, la tranquila, la rosa, la de las cacerolas... Nombres y actos estrepitosos. Hay quienes cometen atentados transformando su cuerpo en explosivos y pulverizado el corazón de las ciudades, quienes ocupan las calles y adoquinados de las plazas grandes con canciones de guerra y fragor, quienes fusilaron o decapitaron a emperadores y reyes, quienes, un día de primavera de 1989, en Pekín, se mantuvieron en pie ante temibles tanques de guerra y gigantescas bocas de cañón..."

[Ben Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Descent into Night is a standalone, contemporary adult novel written by Edem Awumey and translated from the French by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott. The novel is an exploration of Ito Baraka, an ailing Quebecois writer, who reflects about the regrets about his life and his involvement in a failed West African revolution, which still haunts him into the present.

Inspired by the tensions between students and the government in the 1990s in the Togolese capital Lomé, this book delve into the nightmare and musing, madness and serenity, love and fighting of Ito Baraka. Through him, it takes the reader on a journey into the darkest places of the human mind – the voices mingle into a maze of traumatic visions of lost love of a failed writer's career and appalling solitude, from Togo to Canada.

Ito Baraka is taken to a camp where torture, starvation, beatings, and rape are normal. Forced to inform on his friends, whose fates he now fears, and released a broken man, he escapes to Quebec. His one goal is to tell the story of the protest and pay homage to Koli Lem, a teacher, cellmate, and lover of books, who was blinded by being forced to look at the sun—and is surely a symbol of the nation.

Decent into Night is wonderfully written and carefully translated. Ito Baraka's nocturnal journey into his hellish past is not only hauntingly violent, but also beautifully pictured. It is finely crafted and pays homage not only to literature and writing, but also to fighting for freedom and humanity. It is surprisingly poetic – almost lyrical and astounded me. It was such a dark and wonderful novel that I am tempted to read it in the original French.

All in all, Descent into Night is a wonderful, albeit tragic story a man who tried to change his world, but failed and has lived with the consequences.

[El Buscalibros | elbuscalibros.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probablemente no ha sido el mejor momento de mi vida para leer este tipo de historia. Mi completa carencia de horas de sueño y esos dos seres pequeñitos que dependen de mí y me alegran el día no me permiten empaparme del sufrimiento y el dolor que te traen estas páginas. No solamente porque no me dejen leer más de media hora del tirón, que también, sino porque no soy capaz de ponerme en el lugar del protagonista. No comprendo la peor faceta del hombre porque tengo demasiado presente la mejor de ellas. No consigo empatizar con el sufrimiento extremo porque mi corazón está lleno de alegría. No puedo entender el dolor extremo que sigue sufriendo años después de la tragedia el protagonista porque estoy vomitando arco iris y unicornios de colores.

Pero eso no significa que la historia no merezca la pena.

Estamos acostumbrados a leer sobre las atrocidades que sufrieron los judíos o los esclavos. No nos sorprenden historias sobre niñas vendidas o malos tratos. Son historias que de tanto repetir ya no nos llaman la atención. Todos hemos llorado con El niño con el pijama de rayas.

Pero ¿cuántos de nosotros somos capaces de imaginar una dictadura, con sus desapariciones y campos de concentración, en África? Ese continente olvidado del que solemos acordarnos solo cuando se habla de leones o elefantes, pero en el que sabemos que se concentran la mayor parte de los horrores que la humanidad puede cometer (y sufrir).

Ito Baraka nos cuenta, desde su presente oscuro y tormentoso, sus recuerdos de una época en la que no conocía el sufrimiento y cómo su juventud e inocencia lo llevaron a lo más profundo del horror. Nos enseña que incluso en lo más profundo de la desesperación podemos encontrar un rayo de luz, en este caso escenificado como Koli Lem (su compañero de celda) y sus libros. Pero también nos recuerda que aquellos que han pasado por una situación tan traumática quedan marcados para siempre y la vida suele verse en tonos mucho más oscuros a partir de entonces.

No leáis esta novela si no estáis dispuestos a abrazar el sufrimiento como propio. No se os ocurra ni mirarla si no os sentís capaces de abstraeros lo suficiente como para no dejar que os arrastre a las profundidades. Pero si os sentís con fuerza, adelante. Los libros tienen que desestructurarnos de vez en cuando, destrozar nuestras perfectamente amuebladas vidas y llevarnos a lo más profundo del abismo. Así volvemos más fuertes. SIGUE LEYENDO LA RESEÑA EN NUESTRA WEB: https://elbuscalibros.com/explicacion...

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descent Into Night by Edem Awumey and translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott from the original French is the fascinating story of a man imprisoned for standing up to his government. At times, I wasn’t sure if I was listening to prose or poetry. Awumey’s writing style is lovely.

Synopsis:
Ito Baraka is an African man who is inspired to action his college professors. Ito believes that his voice will make a difference, and he sets about to affect change in his country. He and his friends rehearse a controversial play in public places and distribute leaflets under cover of darkness.

However, his hero’s journey is short-lived. Baraka was arrested and sent to a prison camp where he was starved, tortured, raped, and interrogated. He was one of the lucky ones because he escaped with his life. But no matter how far he runs from the prison, he can never escape survivor’s guilt.

Story Review:
Descent Into Night is told in autobiographical format. I found myself wondering if this was a true story. It took a few chapters for me to get into this book. Once I did, I was entranced. Descent Into Night is a disturbing and haunting tale. It is hard to look into the mind of a man who can never truly escape his prison.

Somehow this book is not depressing. After reading it, I felt hopeful and thankful. Hopeful that Edem Awumey’s beautiful mind exists to write more stories. Thankful that I was born into an amazing family within the borders of a free country.

Narration Review:
Kevin Hanchard narrates Descent Into Night. Hanchard’s style is beautiful and dramatic, if not a tad bit distracting. I caught myself thinking about his narrative style instead of listening to the book a few times.

Sensitivity Warnings:
Descent Into Night contains graphic torture, drug addiction, and a hard look at the mental struggle to overcome hopelessness. A struggle that you can’t always win.

Source:
I received a free copy of this book at my request in exchange for an honest review.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This slim novel tells the story of Ito Baraka, a dying, alcoholic, cancer-ridden Togolese writer living in Quebec, looking back at his student days in 1980s Lomé. Unfortunately, the narrative that unfolds is a little overwritten for my taste, while also being an all-too-familiar story. Present-day Baraka lurches around the city, trying to scribble his memories down in a desperate attempt to salve his survivor's guilt. He lives with a drug-addicted First Nations woman (another lost soul forced into exile), having been left some years previously by his wife and son. These present-day scenes then flash back to the story of his teenage student days.

Like so many students in so many repressive regimes (Togo was ruled by the dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma from 1967-2005), Baraka and his friends feel stifled. And so they throw themselves into trying to stage provocative theater (in this case Beckett), secretly distribute quasi-Situationist leaflets around their campus at night, and half-heartedly join in street protests. And like so many minor dissidents around the world, they are quickly gobbled up by the state security apparatus and spit back out as broken husks. 

In Baraka's case, he is taken to a rural prison camp where torture and rape are the norm. There he becomes close to his cellmate, a thoughtful schoolteacher whom the guards blinded by forcing him to stare at the sun (yes, the metaphor is awfully on the nose). As horrific as this all is, it's also a familiar story, and his version of it doesn't really take the reader anywhere new. His eventual escape to the safety of Canada is meant to be viewed as equally tragic, in that his trauma and survivor's guilt are such that he is unable to be stable or happy, thus further betraying the memory of his lost friends. However, the writing kept coming across as more therapeutic than organic, and I could never really fully connect with much of it.

[2TReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A haunting story of a country in the grasp of a corrupt military and the once imprisoned and tortured Ito, who has never been able to live a life free from his past horrors.

Awumey takes us on a dark journey through Ito Baraka's hauntings: a failed uprising against an iron-fisted regime, death and destruction of his country and people, and imprisonment in a camp of horrors. He is given the opportunity to begin again; but struggling with alcoholism, and an unsuccessful career, he writes to remember, to give voice to a lost friend, to reconcile where he is with where he believes he should be.

With prose that is at times short and sharp, rolling and poetic at others, always descriptive, it becomes easy to picture this young man, his friends, their dreams. Baraka interposes the works of well known authors and revolutionaries as he recounts his experiences and the relevance on each work with respect to the atmosphere of the story is compelling.

Using analogies and allegories Awumey depicts the resistance of his people at its peak through protests, pamphlets, and dancing and then recounting how the bodies of the youth would then be taken and used, drained of their vibrancy through a lack of opportunity, seemingly crushed under the heels of a corrupt regime. But there will always be resistance, even when the revolution threatens to consume us all.

My only issue with this book is the portrayal of Baraka's girlfriend. I do believe that her role deserved more and considering her Indigenous background, how her back story was written was disappointing.

CW for mention of torture and rape.

[Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

The translation of this book may have won an award but its tired underlying narrative retread of literary international fiction tropes is trite and slogging.

The narrator is dying of cancer in Quebec. A failed writer, he reminisces about his time as a half-hearted student activist then political prisoner in his native country. He is a tortured alcoholic living with a kind but drug-addicted Indigenous woman. The plot stagnates and nothing moves. Nothing is revealed, the book just mopes until it ends.

It's a bingo card of gloomy tropes that offers nothing new. The writing is good, given my little experience with French fiction, but the drab, sexist, ugly portrait it serves ruins the rest.

This book is not remotely interesting.

[Katherine Cherington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very close to a five.

Taught me a lot, and did so beautifully. Both the Montreal and Togo sections were beautiful, and very scary. I will def remember a lot of the characters. They were incredibly written.
Also gave me some new authors to check out!

[Nikki Reads A Lot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, a deeply troubling narrative that pulls at your heart.

[Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forth book started this year, first finished. A very heavy start to the year.

[monicheis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela que duele, cómo nos duele Africa al adentrarnos en su historia y realidad.
Tan lejano en el mapa y sin embargo nos obliga a empatizar con el sufrimiento y acompañamos a Ito desde su adolescencia hasta sus últimos días, desde el sol abrasador de Togo hasta el frío que cala los huesos en Canadá.

[Aixa · Rating 5 out of 5]

De lo mejor que leí en mucho tiempo.