At Night All Blood Is Black – Paperback

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At Night All Blood Is BlackAuthor: Diop, David ; Moschovakis, AnnaPublication Date: 08\/17\/2021Format: Paperback\nAlfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-calledChocolatsoldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Mans Land.\nUnable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfas mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the Germans severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfas deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isnt a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?\nPeppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’sAt Night All Blood is Blackis a dazzling tale of a mans descent into madness.