Diadié Dembélé

Le duel des grands-mères

The Grand-Mothers’ Duel

January 5, 2022
Novel
250 pages
130 × 206 mm
19 €
9782709668613
978-2-7096-6861-3
																Diadié Dembélé, Le duel des grands-mères
																Diadié Dembélé, Le duel des grands-mères

Because he skips school to read, eat donuts and play marbles, because he is insolent, because he speaks better French than the French to the detriment of his maternal tongue that he is beginning to forget and because he gets into fights with children who mock his father who emigrated to France… For all these reasons, Hamet’s parents decide to punish him by sending him back to his family’s native village. They hope the trip will teach him obedience, respect for tradition and humility and they hope he will no longer be a stranger to his people, a lost boy.

Hamet meets his grandmothers, drinks the salty village well-water, works in the fields, becomes friends with the village boys, and learns much more than obedience. He learns his family history, the reason why his parents left their village and he discovers the man who is his father and where he really wants to live. It is a return to roots, a “huis clos” that opens up the world to him and helps him grow up.

Finalist of the Grand Prix TRL Lire and Prix Sagan
The author

Diadié Dembélé was born in Kodié, in western Mali.
He holds a Master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Paris VIII, and has worked as a medical interpreter for a migrant aid association.
Le duel des grands-mères, his acclaimed first novel, won the Prix littéraire de la Vocation in 2022.

Press

“Of the very endearing and well-mastered Le Duel des grands-mères, we say very little by only revealing the story. Because it is merely the stage for his dazzling writing.”

Livre Hebdo.

“Diadié Dembélé takes the bet to divert is, in the better sense of this word. A beautiful first novel.”

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
January 5, 2022
Novel
250 pages
130 × 206 mm
19 €
9782709668613
978-2-7096-6861-3