africanauthors

The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories | Assia Djebar, Tegan Raleigh

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For my Global Reading Challenge - a book by an author from Algeria. Written in the 1990's - when Algerian women were being killed by extremist terrorists. This book is pulled from true stories told by Algerian refugees to France. It explores what it means when the unthinkable is the everyday, how to love a place and not be able to live in it. Incredibly heavy, I had to read in small doses, but I'm so glad I spent the time with this book.

Tea_and_Starstuff I also loved just learning about this author! Assia Djebar left Algeria after college and wound up in French Academia. She thrived - got herself elected to the Académie Française (an incredibly hard to get post - first North African and fifth woman ever). She was an academic and a storyteller; I'd be interested in reading more by her. 1y

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Tea_and_Starstuff

The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories | Assia Djebar, Tegan Raleigh

Decided on my Global Reading book for #bookspin - the country is Algeria, and author Assia Djebar. My goal when I started was to read books written by people living in the country, who had been born in the country. I didn't want a tourist writing about a place they'd visited. I quickly realized it's more complicated than that, and the as the book of hers I'm reading (tagged) is a great example. (cont...)

Tea_and_Starstuff The author lives in Paris at the time of writing - 1995 and 1996. During that time, according to the publisher, when over 200k Algerians were killed in assassinations and attacks. This book is a series of conversations between her and other women about the state of their home country. It's a mix of gratitude, guilt, rage, and it's so compelling. I'm a couple chapters in so far! 1y

11 likes1 comment

Vansa

Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War | Assia Djebar

The prospect of Internet Archive closing is devastating.When you don't have access to good libraries(or any libraries),it's a wonderful resource and provides you with a wide world of books,several not easily available.These are just a few of the incredible books I've read from it.

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Maggie4483

Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe | Doreen Baingana

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Only a day late for #FoodAndLit #Uganda. I LOVED the Ugandan Rolex - I‘ll be using that technique again in the future (even though I cheated and used a store-bought tortilla instead of making the chapati. I was just too tired).
Not a lot to say about the book. I wish I knew more Ugandan history. It‘s worth reading for the Thank You Note chapter alone.

Looking forward to the Dominican Republic for February.

Texreader, Catsandbooks

Catsandbooks Excellent! Looks tasty! 🇺🇬 2y

Texreader I‘ve been want to make the same thing and was thinking of swapping with tortillas as well. Glad you tried it. I‘ll have to give it a go 2y

TheKidUpstairs @Texreader I swapped in a store bought wrap as well :) Makes it such a quick, easy, tasty breakie! 2y

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Maggie4483 @Catsandbooks thank you! 2y

Maggie4483 @Texreader you should! I looked at the recipe for chapati, and it‘s not much different from tortillas. 2y

Maggie4483 @TheKidUpstairs so easy! I can‘t wait to try with different mix-ins! 2y

22 likes6 comments

DGRachel

The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories | Assia Djebar, Tegan Raleigh

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This is a collection of stories focused on Algerian women and their experiences primarily centered in the 1990s, during the Algerian Civil War. Some worked better for me than others. These are often sad, sometimes brutal, but also filled with rich historical and cultural detail. While not a genre or style I really care for, it‘s well done, and evokes a strong sense of time and place.

#readingafrica2022 #algeria

Librarybelle, BarbaraBB

Librarybelle I would imagine some of these are heartbreaking, but it is also good to know about the historical and cultural details provided. 3y

Nute Stacking! 3y

DGRachel @Librarybelle The way Djebar structures the stories is interesting. The last one is mostly written from the POV of the woman‘s eldest son, and it‘s a monologue of him talking to his dead mother. In that monologue, though, he tells her history, and the story of his uncles and other relatives, which in turn is the history of Algeria stretching back to WWI. She uses that monologue convention in other stories with similar effect. 3y

Librarybelle Wow! That is very interesting! 3y

BarbaraBB Interesting! 3y

56 likes3 stack adds5 comments

Vansa

Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War | Assia Djebar

Tragic.

15 likes1 stack add

Vansa

Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War | Assia Djebar

#BlameitonLitsy saw that @shawnmooney was reading this on Goodreads, and found the story fascinating. What a powerful and unfortunately timely passage

shawnmooney Oh how lovely to hear that you are reading this and that is a fantastic quote! 😍 3y

JudeCC Beautiful! 3y

10 likes2 comments