I reviewed Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s prizewinning novel, translated by Lara Vergnaud, for the LA Times. It’s a literary thriller inspired by the life of Yambo Ouologuem, the acclaimed Malian writer whose career crashed after a plagiarism scandal in the early seventies. Sarr’s book explores the gap between literature and the literary life for young African writers in Paris: his characters “are absolutely devoted to literature, but they’re also trying to make their way in France from its former colonies, a challenge that constantly draws them away from the solitude of writing and into the embattled scene of a narrow, exclusive literary culture.” Read more here.