Brotherhood

by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Alexia Trigo (Translator)

Overview

WINNER of the French Voices Grand Prize, Prix Ahmadou Kourouma, and Grand Prix du Roman Métis

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s searing and thought-provoking debut novel, Brotherhood takes place in the imaginary town of Kalep, where a fundamentalist Islamist government has spread its brutal authority.

Under the regime of the so-called Brotherhood, two young people are publicly executed for having loved each other. In response, their mothers begin a secret correspondence, their only outlet for the grief they share and each woman’s personal reckoning with a leadership that would take her beloved child’s life.

At the same time, spurred on by their indignation at what seems to be an escalation of The Brotherhood’s brutality, a band of intellectuals and free-thinkers seeks to awaken the conscience of the cowed populace and foment rebellion by publishing an underground newspaper. While they grapple with the implications of what they have done, the regime’s brutal leader begins a personal crusade to find the responsible parties, and bring them to his own sense of justice.

In this brilliant analysis of tyranny and brutality, Mbougar Sarr explores the ways in which resistance and heroism can often give way to cowardice, all while giving voice to the moral ambiguities and personal struggles involved in each of his characters’ search to impose the values they hold most dear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609456726
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	618,976
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar in 1990. He studied literature and philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Brotherhood, his first novel, won the Grand Prix du Roman Métis, the Prix Ahmadou Kourouma, and the French Voices Grand Prize, in Alexia Trigo’s translation. He was named Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the president of Senegal.

Alexia Trigo has her Masters in Philosophy from Columbia University. Brotherhood will be her first published translation.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/24/2021

Senegalese writer Sarr’s harrowing English-language debut follows a fundamentalist Islamic organization and the ragtag group of intellectuals intent on challenging its religious orthodoxy. In Kalep, Sumal, a fictional North African desert town, a group called the Brotherhood has taken root. Backed by a powerful military force, the Brotherhood is led by police chief Abdel Karim, who rules with an iron fist, executing young lovers accused of adultery and ordering the vicious beating of an absentminded woman who forgets to shroud herself in a hijab. Within this repressive society, a group of intellectuals develops an underground political journal called Rambaaj that’s aimed at stoking resistance. But instead of fomenting opposition, the paper sows seeds of discord. Greed and backbiting ensue as the Brotherhood rewards citizens who turn in readers of Rambaaj and journalists ruminate on the moral responsibility of their ideas while a burgeoning backlash threatens to divide them. Meanwhile, the haughty Karim burns down a cultural jewel, a well-known Sumalese library, in an attempt to winnow out the resistance journalists. Haunting philosophical questions demonstrate Sarr’s powers, and his story succeeds in speaking to both the reader’s head and heart. This introduces a vital new voice to American readers. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Sarr’s prose soars... A novel that concerns itself with finding freedom where there seems to be none.”—The New York Times Book Review

★ “Haunting philosophical questions demonstrate Sarr’s powers, and his story succeeds in speaking to both the reader’s head and heart. This introduces a vital new voice to American readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Sarr pays moving tribute to the courage of everyday people with this examination of survival and sacrifice.”—Booklist

“Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s first novel is a master stroke.”—L’Humanité

“Reminiscent of novels by 19th century masters, Sarr’s novel is tense, gripping, terrific.”—Le Temps

“A raw but shockingly beautiful book. The author gives voice to the victims of totalitarianism in this emotionally engaging debut.”—Sololibri

“Sarr display(s) uncanny abilities to transport the reader into the lives of oppressed groups – the peaceful Muslims of Kalep — showing just how unfair and cruel life has been for some of them.”—On the Seawall

From the Publisher