The Most Secret Memory of Men

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

The first Sub-Saharan African winner of France's top literary prize, the Goncourt.

In 2018, Diegane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris, discovers a legendary book from the 1930s, The Labyrinth of Inhumanity. No one knows what became of its author, once hailed as the "Black Rimbaud," after the book caused a scandal. Enthralled by this mystery, Diegane decides to search for T.C. Elimane, going down a path that will force him to confront the great tragedies of history, from colonialism to the Holocaust.

Alongside his investigation, Diegane becomes part of a group of young African writers in Paris. Together they talk, drink, make love, philosophize about the role of exile in artistic creation. Diegane grows particularly close to two women: the seductive Siga, who holds so many secrets, and the photojournalist Aïda, impossible to pin down.

The Most Secret Memory of Men is an astonishing novel about the choice between living and writing, and the desire to transcend the divide between Africa and the West. Above all, it is an ode to literature and its timelessness.

©2021 Éditions Philippe Rey in co-edition with Éditions Jimsaan; English translation copyright 2023 by Lara Vergnaud (P)2024 Tantor