- National Book Award for Translated Literature 2023 · Finalist · for the translation by Sam Taylor
Beyond the Door of No Return
La porte du voyage sans retour
David Diop (born 1966)
Translated by Sam Taylor
English editions
In EnglishBeyond the Door of No Return
Pushkin Press · United Kingdom · 2023 · Hardcover
Beyond the Door of No Return
Farrar, Straus and Giroux · United States · 19 September 2023 · Hardcover · 256 pages
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Senegal, 1750, a French trading concession. A young naturalist has crossed the sea to catalogue the plants of the coast, hoping in this age of reason to assemble a complete inventory of nature. Then he is told of a girl who was to be shipped off as a slave but got away and is hiding somewhere in the far interior. From that moment his expedition becomes a relentless hunt for her, through endless rumours and tales. Modelled on the real botanist Michel Adanson, the novel moves through a realm ruled by the spoken word, and comes down to us through the secret notebooks he wrote for his daughter.
AI-generated summary
About the book
- Form
- Novel
- Length
- 252 pages in the original
- Genres
- Historical, Love (assigned by AI)
- Set in
- Senegal, 1750s
- First published
- 2021 by Seuil
- Author's age
- 55 when first published
- ISBN
9782021487855 (original)
9780374606770 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, United States)
9781782278399 (Pushkin Press, United Kingdom)