Book Review: At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

 At Night All Blood Is Black 

By David Diop 

(Winner of International Booker Prize 2021)

Published Year: 2018 , English Translation : 2020 

Page count: 145 pages 

Medium used : Paperback 

Genre : War, WW1, Mental Illness, Psychological Fiction, Brutal, 2024-read. 

Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

The last two pages offering a conclusion to this powerful story on the brutality of war, functioning of a human mind and soul have knocked the breath out of me. They made me think – and think deep I did. I read and reread some passages to understand how strange and misguiding the narration has been to my understanding! While I have been assuming it to imply a certain thing, all the while it was telling a different and hidden story. The small tale, coming at the end, about a fickle princess(Fary Thiam) who falls for a lion sorcerer(Alfa Ndaiye) is the key to untangling this mystery. It adds a lot of gravitas in making an interpretation of the narrative.

My understanding could be wrong but it looks like this book is not one that will have a universally accepted interpretation. It is left open ended to draw one’s own conclusions. I think that Alfa Nadiye and Mademba Diop were never two different people. Its like a split personality thing. When Alfa is seven years old and his mother left him to go in search of her family, the bereaved and broken Alfa creates this character to take birth within his consciousness. They are more than brothers and best of the best friends. They are inseparable. While Alfa is the strong wrestler, lion sorcerer type, Mademba is the soft, scrawny and intellectual type. Alfa is the unscarred,sorcerer prince and Mademba is the scarred, wholesome prince – both inhabiting the same body/psyche. During the war where they are fighting against Germany on the side of France, Alfa helplessly watches Mademba die. (How does this work?)  He is disemboweled and as he pleads with Alfa to give him merciful death, Alfa does nothing but watch. I think this indicates that helplessness of war and what it entails lead Alfa to finally lose grip over reality. He starts letting Mademba take control over his body and consciousness. He starts becoming the other while earlier he was always inhabiting the recesses of his mind. I would very much like to have a sequel to this story to see what comes out of this dichotomy in the war setting. I hope there will be a sequel! 

This book is small but there is lot of stuff conveyed in a lyrical, prosy narration. I was hooked to it from page one. I forgot to care about the page number I am on or how many pages are left till the ending. Very powerful and a treatise on the traumatic effects of war on a normal mind of human. I know, I understand that I am deliberately leaving out large swathes of the story but this book is every bit worth the read! Do read it and experience the wonderful unraveling of a sane mind into madness and insanity. For whatelse can lay in wait for Alfa/Mademba, right?