“Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese man who has never ventured beyond his village, finds himself thrust into the role of a ‘Chocolat’ soldier within the French army during World War I. Amid the horrors of battle, Alfa’s close friend Mademba Diop, serving in the same regiment, sustains grave injuries and implores Alfa to end his suffering by taking his life, sparing him a prolonged and agonizing death in the expanse of No Man’s Land.
Struggling to carry out this act of mercy, Alfa’s psyche begins to unravel, interpreting his inability to fulfill Mademba’s wish as a brutal act of cowardice. Consumed by guilt and a desire for retribution, he initiates a grim routine: under the shroud of darkness, he slips through enemy lines to hunt and kill a blue-eyed German soldier each night, returning to camp unscathed with the severed hand of his victim. Initially, his comrades regard Alfa’s deeds with awe, but soon whispers spread that this enigmatic figure is not a hero, but a sorcerer, a devourer of souls. Plans are hatched to extract Alfa from the frontlines and sever his connection to the accumulating collection of hands. Yet, how does one reason with a perceived demon, and how far will Alfa go to find redemption for his deceased friend?
Infused with gunfire and dark magic, this remarkable narrative resurrects a forgotten episode from World War I’s history. Merging the traditions of oral storytelling with the grim, day-to-day, journalistic reality of trench life, David Diop’s ‘At Night All Blood is Black’ is a compelling chronicle of a man’s descent into madness.
Chosen by students across France for the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s debut English-language historical fiction, ‘At Night All Blood is Black,’ is a ‘powerful, mesmerizing, and somber novel’ (Livres Hebdo) that explores terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.”
