[Many thanks to Anderson Tepper for announcing this new translation in Rethinking World Literature.] Patrick Chamoiseau’s Crusoe’s Footprint (2022), translated by Jeffrey Landon Allen and Charly Verstraet, is now out there for pre-order from Caraf Books/College of Virginia.
Description: The invention in Robinson Crusoe of the footprint of a fellow human on an deserted island is a haunting and iconic second in world literature. Within the arms of Patrick Chamoiseau, probably the most modern and lauded authors within the French language, this second of shattered solitude turns into an event for Crusoe to rethink his origins, existence, and humanity and for one among our most acclaimed novelists to craft a strong meditation on race and historical past.
Chamoiseau’s novel contrasts two intertwining narratives—the log entries of a slave ship’s captain and the story of a castaway who awakens on a seashore and should rebuild his total world alone. Chamoiseau creates a brand new perspective on the Crusoe delusion, not solely injecting the slave commerce and Creole historical past into this beforehand ahistorical story however conceiving an intensely authentic, freeform prose influenced by Creole cadence. This highly effective work by a literary grasp is offered in English for the primary time on this eloquent and vivid translation.
Patrick Chamoiseau is writer of Texaco, winner of the Prix Goncourt and chosen as a New York Occasions Notable Guide of the 12 months, and, most just lately, Slave Outdated Man.
Jeffrey Landon Allen is an unbiased scholar and translator.
Charly Verstraet is Assistant Professor of World Languages and Literatures on the College of Alabama at Birmingham.
For extra info, see https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5688