Ondjaki interviewed in Numero Cinq + John Ralston Saul shows love for Good Morning Comrades on Twitter

Earlier today on Twitter, John Ralston Saul, President of PEN International and author of The Comeback, expressed his admiration for Good Morning Comrades, Ondjaki's "magical 1st novel."

To learn more about this up-and-coming star of Angolan fiction, check out this great interview with Benjamin Woodard, just posted on Numero Cinq. Woodard also wrote an excellent review of Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret, Ondjaki's second novel in English, released in 2014.

Biblioasis is currently at work at translating Os Transparentes, winner of the 2013 Jose Saramago Prize, and generally considered Ondjaki's masterwork.

The Guardian names Ondjaki a Top-5 African Writer

Zukiswa Wanner of The Guardian posted a list recently of the top five African writers he considers the most exciting, and—exciting for us!—included Ondjaki among them. Here's what Wanner had to say:

This Angolan writer, who studied in Lisbon and now lives in Rio de Janeiro, is one of the most prolific writers I know. Good Morning, Comrades tells the story of a young boy growing up in post-civil war Luanda. When his aunt comes to visit from Portugal, he learns that there is a world beyond his home city, one in which people are unafraid and ration cards don't exist. In The Whistler, a traveller walks into a village, visits the church, and soon impresses everyone with his whistling skills. Ondjaki's writing and storylines are deceptively simple but highly entertaining.

For the full article, follow the link above. For more about Good Morning, Comrades (Biblioasis 2008), click here.

At the Crossroads: A Short Story by Ondjaki

It's been nearly two years since we published Ondjaki's first novel in English. I expect, at some point, we'll be working with him again. I have just found a short story by him, translated by Stephen Henighan, Biblioasis Translation Series editor and the translator of Comrades. To read Ondjaki's At the Crossroads please go here.

Ondjaki's Good Morning Comrades

Good reviews keep coming in for backlist titles, as well as news that others are forthcoming -- including a review of our Kapuscinski in Rain Taxi. This time Australian Damian Kelleher, a prominent Australian blogger and reviewer, weighs in on Ondjaki's Good Morning Comrades, the second title in our Biblioasis translation series. This book did not get the attention it deserved, as we did not have the appropriate US distribution in place and had little reputation south of the border as a literary press. that has changed somewhat over the last 18 months, which has resulted, it seems in a few of our backlist titles getting a bit of additional attention.

Damian writes of Comrades:

Good Morning Comrades is short, and it refrains from seeking too much closure. Life goes on, though life has changed, and Ndalu accepts this, though he doesn't like it much. Much of the flippant, charmingly positive boy remains by the end of the novel, though his personality has now become tempered with the truths he has realised. Stephen Henighan, who translated Good Morning Comrades from the Portuguese, provides a brief overview of Angola's troubled history since gaining independence, which provides an excellent postscript to Ondjaki's novel. On a second read-through, many of Ndalu's offhand comments become clearer, and the sad shape of Angola begins to coalesce.

Ondjaki's debut novel is very strong, thanks in large part to the charisma of its narrator. Ndalu is very much the sort of young boy you would expect to become a writer, or reporter, or academic, or even politician. He is, in short, an intellectual, a curious boy who will, we hope, become an even more curious man. Ondjaki himself is an astonishingly productive author, having written nine novels and directed a documentary about Luanda, his home city, the capital of Angola, and the setting of Good Morning Comrades – and this all from a man barely into his thirties. Good Morning Comrades is a charming novel, subtle in its examination of the political difficulties of a small, poorly known African nation. Well recommended.

For the whole review, please go here.