TRAM 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujilla
Jacaranda Books give us a look into this week's Book of the Week, Tram 83:
Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s debut novel, Tram 83, took France by storm last year with its lyrical infusion of jazz, sex and corruption set in a volatile African city-state. The UK edition is translated by Roland Glasser and brought to you by new London-based publisher, Jacaranda Books.
Recently sold out in the States, this tale plunges the reader into the atmosphere of a gold rush as cynical as it is comic. It’s an observation of human relationships in a world that has become a global village, it’s an African-rhapsody, hammered by rhythms of jazz.
‘I can hardly believe Tram 83 is a first novel. . . So much creativity, linguistic innovation, and such a pleasure to read!’ – Alain Mabanckou
'Fiston Mwanza Mujila's Tram 83 introduces a rousing, remarkable new voice to this world, surely in its original French, most definitely in Roland Glasser's superb translation. This book has drive and force and movement, it has hops and chops. It has voices! ' – Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company
More about the book:
"Look around us. There are beautiful girls, good-looking men, Brazza Beer, good music. Doesn’t all that inspire you?"
Tourists of all languages and nationalities converge with students, ex-pats and locals in a war-torn African city-state. They have only one desire: to make a fortune by exploiting the wealth of the country, both mineral and human. As soon as night falls, they go to get drunk, dance, eat and abandon themselves in Tram 83, the only night-club of the city, the den of all iniquities.
Lucien, an aspiring writer, fleeing the exactions and the censorship of the Back-Country finds refuge in the city thanks to Requiem, a friend. Requiem lives mainly by theft and swindle while Lucien only thinks of writing and living honestly. Around them gravitate gangsters and young girls, retired or runaway men, profit-seeking tourists and federal agents of a non-existent State.
About the author:
Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, where he went to a Catholic school before studying Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. He now lives in Graz, Austria, and is pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages.
His poems, prose works, and plays are reactions to the political turbulence that has come in the wake of the independence of the Congo and its effect on day-to-day life. As he says in one of his poems, his texts describe a “geography of hunger”: hunger for peace, freedom, and bread.
For more information about the book you can visit the French publisher here or Jacaranda Books here. You can also read more from the translator Roland Glasser here.