At Night All Blood Is Black

A Novel

By: David Diop, Anna Moschovakis - translator

Narrated by: Dion Graham

WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction

"Astonishingly good." (Lily Meyer, NPR)

"So incantatory and visceral I don’t think I’ll ever forget it." (Ali Smith, The Guardian) | Best Books of 2020

One of The Wall Street Journal's 11 best books of the fall | One of The A.V. Club's 15 best books of 2020 | A Sunday Times best book of the year

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.

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.

©2018 David Diop. Translation © 2020 by Anna Moschovakis. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Dion Graham's haunting narration reveals the heartbreaking costs paid by soldiers who experience the horror of trench warfare.… This is a gut-punch of an audiobook, made all the more affecting by Graham's intense and emotionally resonant delivery." - AudioFile Magazine

"Diop’s short but emotionally packed second novel illuminates an underreported chapter in French and Senegalese history. Part folklore, part existential howl, and part prose poem, it is a heartbreaking account of pointless suffering . . . A searing, eye-opening tale of innocence destroyed.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[A] harrowing, nimbly translated English-language debut . . . Diop is sure to earn readers with this feverish exercise in psychological horror.” - Publishers Weekly

Beautifully written tale of the ugliness of war

Such a beautifully written and performed piece. The story will stay with me and it was so nice to hear this lesser explored aspect of WWI.

Brutal but Poetic

Many war novels make me squirm from the explicit violence. This novel is no exception, yet it’s different, because the language of violence becomes almost poetic as the tale progresses. The main character is a Senegalese villager serving with French troops in World War I. He narrates his tale of brutality and death as if he were sitting with comrades under a tree, or perhaps with a sympathetic therapist. The scope of his tale broadens as he describes his childhood in an impoverished village. By the end, the novel takes on mythic tones as he retells a magical African legend. Dion Graham’s narration is perfect, haunting and intense, almost incantatory.

Powerful story!!!

Diop has written a powerful story about the impact of war on soldiers. Highly recommend!

A lyrical, poetic tale of horror

Great listen. I especially loved the narrator. I’d recommend this to anyone who follows world events.

Dark and riveting

A heavy read. Worth the experience if you are in the right frame of mind to endure the graphic depictions of war and its effects on the psyche. I found the African myths recalled by the main character beautiful.

Gods truth..it’s repetitive

I wanted to like the story more but the constant repetition of phrases and backtracking made it difficult. It’s not a bad story..just not for me.

Amazing beginning!

Diop takes off like a rocket, driving the reader through the violent career of the protagonist Alfa, with a rhythm like a jazz riff, a combination of staccato prose and short repetitive bursts as he tells his story.

The second part of the book is a little disappointing, however, as Alfa tries to explain and justify his actions. His feelings and memories are interesting enough but I found the change in tempo disconcerting.

It was a fascinating read, though, and well deserving of its acclaim in France. The narration was perfect in its conveyance of the character’s mood. Three and a half stars.

not bad but not great

I chose this because it was on President Obama's 2021 list of book recommendations. The writing style was different and content pretty gory. I think some of the intent went over my head... I'd love to hear someone else's take. I'm glad I listened to it.

Brilliant

This is a darkly marvelous story with a fable-like quality to it that you can float through in the course of an afternoon. And yet it sticks with you in unexpected ways. Not for the squeamish.

Compelling story, poor narration

I had to stop halfway & buy a physical copy. The story is compelling but the author’s last name and almost every Senegalese name was mispronounced. Please give narrators help with pronunciation. Sounds nitpicking but narrator use ‘African accent 101’ which I found distracting knowing a francophone Senegalese accent I recommend a physical copy & hope narrators receive more guidance.