Get your reading on with Coucou this fall! We are launching a new version of our club de lecture en français!  This fall, we are starting our 4-week series with a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel, Une si longue lettre, written by Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ.

Hosted by Bhavana, the Coucou Book Club’s aim is to practice French through a literary, emotional and esthetic-driven approach.

* This class will take place online via the video conference platform ZOOM *

The book club will run over the course of 4 Friday sessions, from October 16th to November 6th, 2 to 3:30pm.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Mariama Bâ, “Une si longue lettre”, 1979.

Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Bâ, Une si longue lettre has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences—some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined.

Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, Une si longue lettre is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country. It is also the winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

The book is available on Kindle, any edition will work for this workshop.