A novel telling the story of Michel, whose life is overthrown when, in March 1977, just before the arrival of the rainy season, Congo’s Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally…

Alain Mabanckou’s uproarious, fleet-footed English-language debut, reissued as a Serpent’s Tail Classic to coincide with the publication of Black Moses, Mabanckou’s first new novel in four years.

Michel is ten years old, living in Pointe Noire, Congo, in the 1970s. His mother sells peanuts at the market, his father works at the Victory Palace Hotel, and brings…

Exceptional debut Congolese novel uses jazz rhythm to evoke the frenzied exploitation of land and people in contemporary Africa