Salina - by Laurent Gaudé (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Who will tell the tale of Salina, the mother of three sons, the woman with three exiles, the abandoned child with salty tears? She was taken in by Mamambala and raised as her daughter in a clan that only ever saw her as a stranger and which wanted to defeat her. At the twilight of her life, it is her last son who will recount what she has been, while death offers her the rest that life kept from her, so that her tale can become a legend.

In a mythical and timeless style, Laurent Gaudé writes the painful geste of a luminous, powerful, and wild heroine, who mistook love for dues and revenge for a reason to live.

Review Quotes

Praise

"It's a simply superb text, a perfect accomplishment uniting two of Laurent Gaudé's talents, playwriting and novel writing."--Livres Hebdo

"With this sun scorched ode of a novel, [Laurent Gaudé] confirms that he is one of our greatest storytellers."--Philippe Chevilley, Les Echos

"A brief and powerful tale. A striking reflection on exile and vengeance."--François Busnel, France5

"Tenaciously beautiful, this brief epic has the astonishing power of a myth."--Claire Julliard, L'Obs

"Beautiful, powerful, and moving. Between African tale and ancient tragedy, tinged with universal and very modern accents, Laurent Gaudé has written a brief novel that is insanely powerful."--Bernard Lehut, RTL

About the Author

Laurent Gaudé is a French novelist and playwright. After being nominated for the 2002 Prix Goncourt with The Death of King Tsongor, he won the award in 2004 for his novel The House of Scorta. Europa Editions published his novel Hear Our Defeats in February 2019.