Author(s): David Diop

General Fiction

**Winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize** The prize-winning story of a Senegalese soldier in the trenches, told in hypnotic, powerful prose. Alfa and Mademba are two of the many Senegalese soldiers fighting in the Great War. Together they climb dutifully out of their trenches to attack France's German enemies whenever the whistle blows, until Mademba is wounded, and dies in a shell hole with his belly torn open. Without his more-than-brother, Alfa is alone and lost amidst the savagery of the conflict. He devotes himself to the war, to violence and death, but soon begins to frighten even his own comrades in arms. How far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend? At Night All Blood is Black is a hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness. 

Matilda Bookshop Review

This taut, brilliant novel explores, in savage detail, the bitter experiences of two friends, Senegalese soldiers, fighting for France during World War I. Sold a colonizer’s lie about the virtue of their service, Diop’s depiction of trench warfare is confronting and visceral. What sustains the book are the passages, told almost as fables, of their more innocent days of friendship in Senegal. This is a compelling read. GAVIN