
The Blunder
A Novel
Mutt-Lon(Author)
AmazonCrossing (Publisher)
Published on 12. July 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-5420-3785-3 (ISBN)
Description
From a bold voice in African fiction comes a satirical and unputdownable reimagining of an overlooked episode in Cameroon's colonial past.
Cameroon, 1929. As colonial powers fight for influence in Africa, French military surgeon Euge?ne Jamot is dispatched to Cameroon to lead the fight against sleeping sickness there. But despite his humanitarian intentions, the worst comes to pass: seven hundred local villagers are left blind as a result of medical malpractice by a doctor under Jamot's watch.
Damienne Bourdin, a young white woman, ventures to Cameroon to assist in the treatment effort. Reeling from the loss of her child, she's desperate to redeem herself and save her reputation. But the tides of rebellion are churning in Cameroon, and soon after Damienne's arrival, she is enlisted in a wild plot to staunch the damage caused by the blunder and forestall tribal warfare. Together with Ndongo, a Pygmy guide, she must cross the country on foot in search of Edoa, a Cameroonian princess and nurse who has gone missing since the medical blunder was discovered.
As Damienne races through the Cameroonian forest on a farcical adventure that unsettles her sense of France's "civilizing mission," she begins to question her initial sense of who needed saving and who would save the day.
Cameroon, 1929. As colonial powers fight for influence in Africa, French military surgeon Euge?ne Jamot is dispatched to Cameroon to lead the fight against sleeping sickness there. But despite his humanitarian intentions, the worst comes to pass: seven hundred local villagers are left blind as a result of medical malpractice by a doctor under Jamot's watch.
Damienne Bourdin, a young white woman, ventures to Cameroon to assist in the treatment effort. Reeling from the loss of her child, she's desperate to redeem herself and save her reputation. But the tides of rebellion are churning in Cameroon, and soon after Damienne's arrival, she is enlisted in a wild plot to staunch the damage caused by the blunder and forestall tribal warfare. Together with Ndongo, a Pygmy guide, she must cross the country on foot in search of Edoa, a Cameroonian princess and nurse who has gone missing since the medical blunder was discovered.
As Damienne races through the Cameroonian forest on a farcical adventure that unsettles her sense of France's "civilizing mission," she begins to question her initial sense of who needed saving and who would save the day.
Reviews / Votes
"Cameroonian writer Mutt-Lon skewers self-centered and condescending humanitarian efforts of people from the first world in his sharp English-language debut...This impressive work finds the humanity of its targets." -Publishers Weekly"Mutt-Lon writes with a bracing mix of directness and humor...Yet he never creates enough irony to soften discomfort; doing so would be too easy, and The Blunder, no matter how swift and funny it gets, is an intensely complex novel, full of nuanced characters and difficult histories of colonial and inter-tribal prejudice and conflict...The Blunder is an excellent model of bluntness mixed with sophistication - and, as such, an excellent and infuriating read." -NPR
"...extremely readable-a testament to both Mutt-Lon's skillful prose and Amy B. Reid's deft translation." -Historical Novels Review
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Publishing group
Amazon Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5420-3785-3 (9781542037853)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mutt-Lon is the literary pseudonym of author Nsegbe Daniel Alain. His first novel, Ceux qui sortent dans la nuit (Those Who Come Out at Night, 2013), brought him critical acclaim when it received the prestigious Ahmadou Kourouma Prize in 2014. Les 700 aveugles de Bafia (2020), published in English as The Blunder, is his third novel and the first to be translated into English. He lives in Douala.
Amy B. Reid is an award-winning translator who has worked with authors from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti. Among her translations are the Patrice Nganang titles Dog Days: An Animal Chronicle (2006) and the trilogy comprised of Mount Pleasant (2016), When the Plums Are Ripe (2019), and A Trail of Crab Tracks (2022), as well as Queen Pokou: Concerto for a Sacrifice (2009) and Far from My Father (2014) by Veronique Tadjo. In 2016 she received a Literature Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for When the Plums Are Ripe. She holds a PhD in French from Yale University (1996) and is a professor of French and Gender Studies at New College of Florida.
Amy B. Reid is an award-winning translator who has worked with authors from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti. Among her translations are the Patrice Nganang titles Dog Days: An Animal Chronicle (2006) and the trilogy comprised of Mount Pleasant (2016), When the Plums Are Ripe (2019), and A Trail of Crab Tracks (2022), as well as Queen Pokou: Concerto for a Sacrifice (2009) and Far from My Father (2014) by Veronique Tadjo. In 2016 she received a Literature Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for When the Plums Are Ripe. She holds a PhD in French from Yale University (1996) and is a professor of French and Gender Studies at New College of Florida.