The African Equation
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Yasmina Khadra takes current events as a starting point to explore opposing views and myths of Africa and the West, attitudes to life and work and our duties towards our fellow humans, ultimately delivering a powerful message of friendship, resilience and redemption.
Kurt Krausmann, a recently bereaved Frankfurt doctor, is persuaded to join his friend, wealthy benefactor Hans Makkenroth, on a humanitarian mission to the Comoros. The journey helps him begin to confront his loss, but soon misfortune strikes again: the boat he and Hans are travelling in is hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and the men are taken hostage.
Held in a remote hideout, the prisoners suffer harsh conditions and the brutality of their guards; self-styled warriors, ex-army captains and even poets drawn to banditry through poverty or opportunism. When the group decamps to a lawless desert region and Hans is taken away, Kurt sinks deeper into despair. But fellow inmate Bruno, a French ethnologist who has been travelling Africa for 40 years, attempts to show Kurt another side to the wounded yet defiant continent he has taken to his heart.
Original French title, L’Équation africaine, published in 2011 by Julliard.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Howard
Curtis
Howard Curtis has almost forty years of experience as a literary translator from French, Italian and Spanish. Among the many authors he has translated are Georges Simenon, Gianrico Carofiglio, Jean-Claude Izzo, Georges Bernanos, Giorgio Scerbanenco and Santiago Gamboa.
Howard Curtis has almost forty years of experience as a literary translator from French, Italian and Spanish. Among the many authors he has translated are Georges Simenon, Gianrico Carofiglio, Jean-Claude Izzo, Georges Bernanos, Giorgio Scerbanenco and Santiago Gamboa.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A skilled storyteller working at the height of his powers – a gripping read.