At Night All Blood Is Black ★★★★☆

At Night All Blood Is Black (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★☆

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop is a novella about a Senegalese soldier in World War I.

I checked this book out from the library.

Alfa Ndiaye is fighting for the French in World War I when his best friend, Mademba Diop, is killed by the German enemies. Alfa holds his friend while he dies and refuses to kill him even though his friend is begging to be put out of his misery. After this experience, Alfa is profoundly changed - he begins going on his own during battle and killing German soldiers, brining back their hands as trophies. At first his comrades applaud him, but after a while they begin to fear him. Alfa descends into madness, unable to come to terms with the death of his friend.

This is a powerful book about PTSD and war - written from the perspective of the soldier, it is also a disturbing commentary on madness. Well-written and intentional with the narrator’s voice, this is a book that will stay with you.

If you liked At Night All Blood Is Black, I also recommend A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, and Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter.

BONUS If you liked At Night All Blood Is Black because it’s an unsettling psychological novella, then you should also check out Sisters by Daisy Johnson, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca, Magma by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir, and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.

Happy reading!

Ms.Bjork