{"title":"Léonora Miano","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dark-heart-of-the-night-book-leonora-miano-9780803228238","title":"Dark Heart of the Night","description":"What is Africa's own heart of darkness? It is what confronts Ayan  when, after three years abroad, she returns to the Central African village of her birth. Now an outsider with foreign ways distrusted by her fellow villagers, she must face alone the customs and superstitions that bind this clan of men and women. When invading militia organize a horrific ceremony that they claim will help reunite Africa, Ayan  is forced to confront the monstrosity of the act that follows, as well as the responsibility that all the villagers must bear for silently accepting evil done in their name. Through Ayan 's unwilling witness, L onora Miano probes the themes of submission and responsibility and questions the role of Africans in the suffering of their fellows. Also exploring African identity, Dark Heart of the Night is a profoundly disturbing novel in its evocation of the darkest side of people driven by their instinct to survive. L onora Miano was born in Cameroon in 1973 and lived there until moving to France in 1991. She has published three novels including L'interieur de la nuit. In 2006 she received the Montalembert Prize for a first novel by a female writer. Tamsin Black has translated Pascale Kramer's The Living and Marie NDiaye's Rosie Carpe, both available in Bison Books editions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49676880773393,"sku":"CIN0803228236G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007473713425,"sku":"NIN9780803228238","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803228236.jpg?v=1761387552"},{"product_id":"season-of-the-shadow-book-lonora-miano-9780857428714","title":"Season of the Shadow","description":"Now in paperback, a brutal and dreamlike story about the first victims of the transatlantic slave trade.   This powerful novel presents the early days of the transatlantic slave trade from a new perspective: that of the sub-Saharan population that became its first victims. Cameroonian novelist Léonora Miano presents a world on the brink of disappearing—a pre-colonial civilization with roots that stretch back for centuries. One day, a group of villagers finds twelve of their people missing. Where have they gone? Who is responsible? A collective dream, troubling a group of mothers in a communal dwelling, may have some of the answers, as the women’s missing sons call to them in terror; at the same time, a thick shadow settles over the huts, blocking out the light of day. It is the shadow of slavery, which will soon grow to blight the whole world.   Miano renders this brutal story in deliberately strange, dreamlike prose, befitting a situation that is, on its face, all but impossible for the villagers to believe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742107705617,"sku":"NGR9780857428714","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50479624225041,"sku":"CIN0857428713VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0857428713.jpg?v=1751234423"},{"product_id":"twilight-of-torment-book-lonora-miano-9780857429797","title":"Twilight of Torment","description":"A haunting, multivocal novel full of stories of the lives of women of African descent.     Four women speak. They speak to the same man, who is not there. He is the son of the first, the great-yet-impossible love of the second, the platonic companion of the third, the older brother of the last. Speaking to him in his absence, it is to themselves that these women turn, examining their own stories to make sense of their journey, from twilight to twilight, through a mysterious stormy night in the middle of the dry season.     Together, the voices in Twilight of Torment: Melancholy, the first volume of a two-volume novel, perform a powerful and sometimes discordant jazz-inspired chorus about issues such as femininity, sexuality, self-love, and the intrusion of history into the intimate lives of people of African descent. Blackness confronts African-ness, love is sometimes discovered in the arms of another woman, the African renaissance tries to establish itself on the rubble of self-esteem damaged by history. Each of these women, with her own language and rhythm, ultimately represents a specific aspect of the tormented history of Africans in today’s world, and at the end of the night, they will each arrive at a dawn of hope.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742111637777,"sku":"NGR9780857429797","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51424515653905,"sku":"CIN0857429795G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0857429795.jpg?v=1750915613"},{"product_id":"twilight-of-torment-ii-heritage-book-lonora-miano-9781803091549","title":"Twilight of Torment - II. Heritage","description":"A searing novel exploring the construction of masculinity in sub-Saharan Africa.     After beating his girlfriend and leaving her for dead on the street, Amok retraces his steps. Frightened by his act, which reproduces the violence of his father, he hopes to save the woman. But it is too late when he arrives at the scene; two women are already carrying the injured woman. Overwhelmed and not daring to reveal himself, he decides to find his father in order to learn how to rid himself of the dark force that he believes runs through the men of his lineage. He embarks on a journey that will be, more than anything, an inner one, forcing him to understand his story and choose a healthier way of being in the world. This second volume of Twilight of Torment is both intimate and political. Through the story of a man and his family, we discover an African bourgeoisie and its many social wanderings in a contemporary Africa whose future seems nebulous.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49746120966417,"sku":"NGR9781803091549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1803091541.jpg?v=1751446941"},{"product_id":"stardust-book-lonora-miano-9781803096100","title":"Stardust","description":"An unflinching look at the realities of racism, poverty, and exclusion in contemporary France—told through the eyes of a young Cameroonian mother navigating life on society’s edge.   At just twenty-three, Louise finds herself stranded in a Paris shelter with her baby, Bliss, in her arms while battling homelessness, racism, and the struggles that come with being a female immigrant trying to keep her dignity alive. Yet amid the chaos, Louise encounters a fragile network of mothers and survivors from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, each carrying their own story of violence, addiction, and resilience.   Based on a pivotal moment in author Léonora Miano’s own life, Stardust is a luminous story of the quiet power of choosing life. The novel was first composed over twenty years ago and remained unpublished for years. Now, Miano invites readers into her world, shedding light on the invisible corners of French society and offering a moving meditation on motherhood, dignity, and renewal.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52821302968593,"sku":"NGR9781803096100","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53406369972497,"sku":"NIN9781803096100","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781803096100.jpg?v=1767866459"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-lonora-miano.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}