Bound to Violence
Yambo Ouologuem
We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.
To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.
From the publisher
Translated by Ralph Manheim
With an Introduction by Chérif Keïta
'A great novel ... bone-chilling black satire ... it deserves many readings' New York Times
A mock epic of explosive power, Bound to Violence races through the history of the imaginary African kingdom of Nakem, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Recounting the bloody adventures of successive inglorious dynasties, the arrival of white exploiters and the fates of ordinary, endlessly persecuted citizens - most notably the tragicomic, Paris-educated hero Raymond-Spartacus Kassoumi - this iconoclastic, outrageous 1968 novel takes a wry, sideways look at empire and nationalism, and at the sex, violence and power that run through human relationships.
'A startling energy of language' John Updike, New Yorker