What to read to discover French literature?
September 30 was International Translation Day and the most translated literary work in the world is a French book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. On this occasion, the Embassy is delighted to propose 18 books to read
Three award-winning and qualified books by literary prize in 2021
Eric Vuillard, L’ordre du jour (2017, Goncourt Prize)
Leïla Slimani, Chanson douce (2016, Goncourt Prize ), also translated in around 20 languages as Lullaby (UK, 2018)
David Diop, La porte du voyage sans retour (2021, qualified for Medicis Prize)
In French literature, we find two authors who spent time in Ghana that we recommend:
La Vie sans fards, Maryse Condé (2012). Maryse Condé has an experience close to that of Maya Angelou. She is from Guadeloupe and spent early 60’s in Ghana and Guinea. She narrates her experience in Ghana in this semi-autobiographic novel. Translated in English as What is Africa to me (Seagull London. 2017)
Peau noire masques blancs (1952), Frantz Fanon, translated in English under the title Black Skin, White Masks, which has become a classic of post-colonial studies worldwide. Fanon, a French Martinican writer and psychiatrist, was also an activist engaged on the Algerian side during the Algerian liberation struggle. As such he was appointed Ambassador in Ghana of the Algerian provisional government before Algeria gained independence from France in 1962.
The ambassador’s choices
L’Etranger, Albert Camus
Oscar et la Dame rose, Erick-Emmanuel Schmid
-Trois jours et une vie, Pierre Lemaitre
Five Classic French literature available in English
Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The most translated book in the world, The Little Prince is French, and written by a former pioneering aviator
Le Rouge et le Noir, by Stendhal (1830), The Red and the Black (translation 1900)
Mémoires d’outre-tombe (1849-1850), François-René de Chateaubriand, translated as Memoirs from beyond the grave
La promesse de l’Aube (1960), Romain Gary, translated as The Promise of Dawn (1961)
Rouge Brésil (2001), Jean-Christophe Rufin, translated as Brazil Red (WW Norton&Co, 2004)
Find these books in the Alliances françaises in Ghana and in Vidya bookstores
Five titles by Ghanaian authors translated into French
Ayesha Haruna Attah, 100 wells of Salaga translated as Les 100 puits de Salaga (Gaïa, 2019)
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Tail of the Blue Bird (2009) and 4 collections of poems, translated as Notre quelque part (Zulma, 2010) and poetry anthropology Ce que je sais (Joca Seria, 2020)
Yaa Gyasi, Homecoming (2017), translated as No Home (Calmann Lévy, 2017)
Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: a love story (1991), translated in english as Désordres amoureux (Editions Zoe, 2008)
By the way, in season 2 of Touch of France presented by the French Ambassador to Ghana, the theme of the episode was literature with the guest Jackie Appiah. Watch the whole episode on Youtube.