At Night All Blood Is Black

This month’s reading challenge has been to read books in translation. High on my list was At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Moschovakis. It’s set during World War I, and although I usually avoid war fiction, this drew me for its focus on a Senegalese man’s descent into madness while fighting with the French army.

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop
Translator	Anna Moschovakis
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Fiction; Literary Fiction
Setting	France; Senegal
Book Length	160
Format I Read	Audiobook
Original Publication Date	November 10, 2020

Official Summary

*WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE*
*ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021*

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction
Shortlisted for the 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award

“Astonishingly good.” ―Lily Meyer, NPR
“So incantatory and visceral I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.” ―Ali Smith, The Guardian | Best Books of 2020

One of TheWall Street Journal‘s 11 best books of the fall | One of The A.V. Club‘s fifteen best books of 2020 |A Sunday Times best book of the year

Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.

Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

Review

First off: WOW, what a novel. This is one of the most stunning works of fiction I’ve ever read. At Night All Blood Is Black is literary fiction of the highest order. The writing is very poetic and lyrical and, moreover, extremely stream-of-consciousness. From the beginning, readers are fully immersed in the narrator Alfa’s head, focused solely on his thoughts with little outside context. Alfa doesn’t provide much in the way of world-building or examination of other characters. It’s like the rest of the world falls away so we can stay centered in his perspective.

The author uses repetition as a literary device here, and it’s so effective. Alfa frequently says “I know, I understand” and “God’s truth,” like these are affirmations of his core identity. Rather than becoming redundant, though, it actually builds up Alfa’s character, keeps readers in his mind, and adds to the kind of madness he’s inhabiting.

The core theme in At Night All Blood Is Black is an intense grief and the guilt one feels for a loved one’s death. Alfa is replaying memories of his role in a friend’s agonizing end, and he is unable to move on from them. Later on we get extra insight into his life in Senegal and his relationship with his “more-than-brother.” We see the kinds of extra guilt he has beyond the incident where his friend died, such as the differences in their appearances and their life trajectories.

As the novel progresses, Alfa’s preoccupations descend further into full madness, bent on revenge and violence. It gets more and more gruesome as time passes, and though he was once revered by his fellow soldiers, they come to fear him. I like his observation of madness on the battlefield versus off of it. His insanity is becoming impossible to ignore, but just when it seems like he’s starting to get better, it becomes alarmingly clear that his perception is completely divorced from reality. And then that ending?!? I’m confused but amazed.

Final Thoughts

At Night All Blood Is Black is a singular novel that is unlike anything I’ve read. I can see why it’s won so many awards; this is an impressive piece of literary fiction. Even though I’m generally not interested in books about war, this one is hypnotizing and absolutely brilliant. I cannot wait to read more from David Diop.