Days Come and Go

Days Come and Go

Hemley Boum, Nchanji Njamnsi • Hemley Boum

ISBN-10: 194964135X · ISBN-13: 978‑1949641356 · 2022

Live offer for this book: 9 live copies of this book from $6.59 (as of 2026-09-07).

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Completeness 51

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Chronicling the beauty and turmoil of a rapidly changing Cameroon, Days Come and Go is the remarkable story of three generations of women both within and beyond its borders. Through the voices of Anna, a matriarch living out her final days in Paris; Abi, Anna's thoroughly European daughter (at least in her mother's eyes); and Tina, a teenager who comes under the sway of a militant terrorist faction, Boum's epic is generous and all-seeing. Brilliantly considering the many issues that dominate her characters' lives--love and politics, tradition and modernity-- Days Come and Go , in Nchanji Njamnsi's vivid translation, is a page-turner by way of Frantz Fanon and V. S. Naipaul. As passions rise, fall, and rise again, Boum's stirring English-language debut offers a discerning portrait of a nation that never once diminishes the power of everyday human connection. A novelist, poet, and essayist, Hemley Boum is the author of four novels, including Les Maquisards , which received the Grand prix littéraire de l'Afrique Noire, and Days Come and Go (Les jours viennent et passent ), winner of the Prix Amadou Kourouma, which has been translated into both German and Dutch. She regularly publishes articles in Jeune Afrique , Le Point Afrique and Le Monde Afrique , and speaks at colloquia, universities, and literary festivals. Hemley has conducted masterclasses in France, Réunion, Cameroon, and Congo, and since 2019 she has been involved in "La Fabrique de Souza", a series of literary salons in Douala, Cameroon. Hemley was born in Cameroon, where she studied anthropology before relocating to Lille, France, to study international trade. She currently lives in Paris, France. Nchanji Njamnsi is a translator from Cameroon who has been translating since 2012. He is passionate about the role literary translation should play in intercultural communication. He previously co-translated a short story featured in Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is , a bilingual anthology published in 2020. He lives in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

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