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Presentation of Dog Days by Patrice Nganang
From June 01, 2013 until June 11, 2013
On June 11 in Madrid, Casa Árabe and Casa África are presenting the book Dog Days by Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang. This novel describes the poorest and most populous of boroughs in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
The event will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Casa Árabe Auditorium in Madrid (at Calle Alcalá, 62), and the author will be attending. Also present will be Nuria Medina, Casa Árabe’s Cultural Programs Coordinator, and Ángeles Jurados, a writer and journalist, as well as the coordinator of the Casa África Reading Club. The presentation will be given in French with a simultaneous translation into Spanish.
The novel Dog Days tells the detailed story of life in the poor neighborhoods of Yaoundé. The characters include Massa Yo, who runs the “Customer Is King” bar, his wife, Mama Mado, a pastry vendor, and their son Sumi. Then there is the most original of all: Mbudjak, the humanist dog, who sniffs away and contemplates the thousand and one goings-on in the street, that place where words come to life and hold reign, where rumors grow and uprisings roar. Dog Days is a novel and hymn to the peoples of Africa who are awaiting their turn and their voice, a work which praises the words in the street, which forges consciences and in which many languages (French, English, Françanglais and Bamileké) mix together in one delicious mestizo tongue.
Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 1970, Patrice Nganang studied Comparative Literature and is currently an assistant professor of Literary Theory at Stony Brook State University in New York. He is the author of many novels, such as: La promesse des fleurs (l'Harmattan, 1997), La joie de vivre (le Serpent à Plumes, 2003), L'invention du beau regard (Gallimard, 2004) and La Chanson du joggeur (published in serialized installments in the newspaper Le Messager of Douala, Cameroon, from July 12 to September 2, 2005).
His most highly acclaimed novel, Temps de Chien (Dog Days, 2001), earned the Marguerite Yourcenar Award for the year when it was published, an award intended for French-speaking writers who live in the United States, and in 2002 it earned the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire, a literary award for the leading French-speaking African writers.
In his works, Nganang describes the poor areas of Yaoundé, creating a very original literature in which tragedy and comedy mix together with a colorful command of the French language. As a scholar, the author is also a renowned specialist in African literature and a regular collaborating writer for various academic journals around the world.
The novel Dog Days tells the detailed story of life in the poor neighborhoods of Yaoundé. The characters include Massa Yo, who runs the “Customer Is King” bar, his wife, Mama Mado, a pastry vendor, and their son Sumi. Then there is the most original of all: Mbudjak, the humanist dog, who sniffs away and contemplates the thousand and one goings-on in the street, that place where words come to life and hold reign, where rumors grow and uprisings roar. Dog Days is a novel and hymn to the peoples of Africa who are awaiting their turn and their voice, a work which praises the words in the street, which forges consciences and in which many languages (French, English, Françanglais and Bamileké) mix together in one delicious mestizo tongue.
Patrice Nganang
Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 1970, Patrice Nganang studied Comparative Literature and is currently an assistant professor of Literary Theory at Stony Brook State University in New York. He is the author of many novels, such as: La promesse des fleurs (l'Harmattan, 1997), La joie de vivre (le Serpent à Plumes, 2003), L'invention du beau regard (Gallimard, 2004) and La Chanson du joggeur (published in serialized installments in the newspaper Le Messager of Douala, Cameroon, from July 12 to September 2, 2005).
His most highly acclaimed novel, Temps de Chien (Dog Days, 2001), earned the Marguerite Yourcenar Award for the year when it was published, an award intended for French-speaking writers who live in the United States, and in 2002 it earned the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire, a literary award for the leading French-speaking African writers.
In his works, Nganang describes the poor areas of Yaoundé, creating a very original literature in which tragedy and comedy mix together with a colorful command of the French language. As a scholar, the author is also a renowned specialist in African literature and a regular collaborating writer for various academic journals around the world.
