New in paperback. First English translation. Birahima is a ten-year-old soldier. When Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village, accompanied by the sorcerer Yacouba, to search for his aunt, Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, scant rations of food, and plenty of dope. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other child soldiers, he sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Told in the remarkably realised voice of a ten-year-old boy, Birahima's story is tinged with both humour and disdain. As Birahima takes us through the bloody battlefields of horrific warfare, he makes no attempt to explain the inexplicable. Translated by Frank Wynne. 215pp, UK. VINTAGE UK.

Like a bird in flight, the reader travels across a borderless landscape composed of tales of everyday existence, news reports, allegories and ancestral myths, becoming aware in the course of the journey of the interconnection of individual lives. 106pp, UK. HEINEMANN AFRICAN WRITERS SERIES.

Graphic novel. The Ivory Coast in 1978 forms the backdrop for the fictional memoir of Aya, the studious, nineteen-year-old heroine, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling neighbours and relatives, all caught up in the simple pleasures of everyday life in Yop City. Full colour illustrations throughout. Gloss, 106pp, CANADA. DRAWN & QUARTERLY.

Written 30 years after the Cote d'Ivoire's Declaration of Independence from France in 1960, this is an illuminating political allegory which resonates in many ways with the contemporary scene and current crisis in that country. Yet, this multi-layered narrative comprises a series of short stories and poetic texts threaded together that can be read across temporal and geographic boundaries both within and beyond continental Africa. Veronique Tadjo explores multiple themes, issues and questions, which are interwoven into a compelling narrative of love and renewal. Translated from the French by Janis Mayes. 106pp, UK. AYEBIA.

In returning to the country of his birth, the narrator hopes to find the success and peace of mind which has eluded him for fifteen years. Instead he unwittingly becomes embroiled in a country where westernisation and traditional ways of life are at odds and in which mysterious, murdering, head cutters now operated. French text, 186pp, FRANCE. SEPIA, 290788882X

1997 Paperback

Published in Montreal in 1968 after French publishers rejected it, this first novel by the Cote D'Ivoirian novelist received fierce criticism for the way he used the French language to express Malinke imagery and speech rhythms, showing more fully the way his characters think. Kourouma examines the psychological consequences of traditional African culture and that of the colonist colliding through the characters of Fama, a Dumbuya prince trying to make his mark within the new hierarchy, and Salimata, his wife struggling with her own past and vision of the future. 196pp, UK.

Now available in paperback. A tale told through the eyes of Bingo, a West African Sora weaving magic, history and satire. The author reveals a vision of modern Africa, the naivety of colonialism, and the brutality of tyranny. 445pp, UK. VINTAGE, 0099283824

A tale told through the eyes of Bingo, a West African Sora weaving magic, history and satire. The author reveals a vision of modern Africa, the naivety of colonialism, and the brutality of tyranny. 381pp, FRANCE. SEUIL. IN FRENCH.

New in smaller format paperback. Young, American, and idealistic, the Whiteman bounds into the Ivory Coast with a deep desire to make a difference. But the NGO's funding dries up and he's stranded, unable to establish a water supply for the village and with plenty of time on his hands. With Mamadou as his guardian, he builds himself a thatch-roofed hut, cultivates a field, masters the art of rainforest hunting, and inadvertently tramples all over unspoken taboos, all the while being hopelessly, helplessly, distracted by women, from the village flirt to the local chief's intended wife. Taking place against the backdrop of bloody civil war, this is the story of a white man losing his aid-worker illusions and discovering a different, more complicated Africa: perplexing and brutal, beguiling and sexy. 288pp, UK. PORTOBELLO BOOKS.