At Night All Blood Is Black

Hardcover, 145 pages

English language

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:: 978-0-374-26697-4

(1 review)

Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier 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 Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s 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 German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate …

Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier 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 Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s 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 German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t 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?

Peppered 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's “At Night All Blood is Black” is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut “At Night All Blood is Black” is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.

5 editions

mikerickson@bookwyrm.social reviewed At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop

Review of 'At Night All Blood Is Black' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Trench warfare on the Western Front of World War I has gotta be like, at least in the top 5 worst experiences in all of human history. But I think this is the first fictional account I've read that really nailed just how fucking bleak it could be by looking at it directly rather than shunting it to the background or a flashback.

Strangely enough, this book strongly reminded me of [b:Fever Dream|30763882|Fever Dream|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471279721l/30763882.SX50.jpg|42701168], in that it's a brief look at a character's descent into madness. A Senegalese soldier who's drafted up by France to fight the Germans watches his best friend die and Does Not Handle It Well™. His white French commanding officers just want the Africans to act savage and scare the opposing Germans, and our protagonist is all too willing to play the part. Problem is, his own side starts becoming afraid of him …

Trench warfare on the Western Front of World War I has gotta be like, at least in the top 5 worst experiences in all of human history. But I think this is the first fictional account I've read that really nailed just how fucking bleak it could be by looking at it directly rather than shunting it to the background or a flashback.

Strangely enough, this book strongly reminded me of [b:Fever Dream|30763882|Fever Dream|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471279721l/30763882.SX50.jpg|42701168], in that it's a brief look at a character's descent into madness. A Senegalese soldier who's drafted up by France to fight the Germans watches his best friend die and Does Not Handle It Well™. His white French commanding officers just want the Africans to act savage and scare the opposing Germans, and our protagonist is all too willing to play the part. Problem is, his own side starts becoming afraid of him as well. Very much a, "we asked you to give an 8 or a 9 on the crazy scale, and you're giving us a 20" kind of situation.

There's a series of vignettes of trench life and life before the war, but the book has a very loose flow and structure, and I didn't really know what to expect at any point as past and present blended together with increasing frequency. But that very well could have been intentional, as our protagonist starts to lose his own sense of identity towards the end.

Definitely a unique perspective for a historical period I thought I'd already seen from every angle. And in retrospect, there really wasn't any supernatural aspect at all like I expected going into it, which actually heightens the depravity of it all. Maybe give this one a go when you're already in a good state of mind and not when you're looking for a feel-good/pick-me-up kind of story.

Subjects

Fiction
Horror
Supernatural
World War I
France
Senegal
Ghost story
War
Military
Novella