![]() Tram 83 is the locus of those driven by ambition, desire, greed, or pleasure-and in this underworld we meet quite a cast of characters." - Kirkus Reviews "Stylistically quirky and unorthodox fiction from Africa. ![]() ![]() Rather than moralize, he transfigures harsh reality with a bounding, inventive, bebop-style prose, translated from the French with light-footed skill by Roland Glasser." -John Powers, NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross "If his portrait of Congo makes it appear socially and politically hopeless, what's hopeful is the spirit of his writing, which crackles and leaps with energy. The writing, which has all the edgy darkness of the best street lit, sometimes mimics the bar’s background jazz in its syncopation and the occasional quick-burst, broken-sentence, run-on format, with the bar regulars feeling like a Greek chorus." - Library Journal (Starred Review) "Mujila has turned out a multiaward-winning debut that’s decidedly cool and juicy. Mujila succeeds in exploring themes of globalization and exploitation in a kinetic, engaging work." - Publishers Weekly Rapid and poetic, Mujila depicts a province where 'every day is a pitched battle.'. "In this visceral, fast-paced debut novel, acclaimed Congolese poet Mujila examines life in a central African state plagued by instability. One of Flavorwire's 33 Must-Read Books for Fall 2015 Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 Currently based in London, Glasser works with a wide range of international clients and collaborators in translation and theater. Glasser spent a decade living in Paris, where he developed a successful career in translation, literary editing, and lighting design, while gaining extensive experience as a performer, dramaturg, producer, writer and photographer. Roland Glasser, a French to English translator, editor, and writer, studied French and Theatre Studies at Aberystwyth University (Wales), Film and Dramatic Arts at the University of Caen (Normandy) and Advanced Theatre Practice at The Central School of Speech and Drama (London). Tram 83, written in French and published in August 2014 as a lead title of the "rentrée litteraire" by Éditions Métailié, is his first novel and has been shortlisted and won numerous literary prizes in France and Austria, a French Voices Prize from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, and has already been translated into eight languages. His texts have been published in the original French and in translation in many journals and anthologies in several European countries, and he has been performing at readings and festivals since 2002. His texts describe, as he says in one of his poems, a "geography of hunger": hunger for peace, freedom, and bread. His poems, prose works and plays are reactions to the political turbulence that has come in the wake of the independence of the Congo and its effect on day-to-day life. His writing has been awarded with numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal at the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut as well as the Best Text for Theater (“Preis für das beste Stück,” State Theater, Mainz) in 2010. He now lives in Graz, Austria, and is pursuing a PHD in Romance Languages. Tram 83 plunges the reader into the modern African gold rush as cynical as it is comic and colorfully exotic, using jazz rhythms to weave a tale of human relationships in a world that has become a global village.įiston Mwanza Mujila was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, where he went to a catholic school before studying Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. Two friends, one a budding writer home from abroad, the other an ambitious racketeer, meet in the most notorious nightclub-Tram 83-in a war-torn city-state in secession, surrounded by profit-seekers of all languages and nationalities. "An exuberantly dark first novel." - NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross Winner of the Etisalat Prize for Debut African Fiction 2015Īn exceptional debut Congolese novel, Tram 83 uses jazz rhythms to evoke the frenzied exploitation of land and people in contemporary Africa. Translated from the French by Roland Glasser ![]()
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