At Night All Blood Is Black - Book Review

Winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize and one of former President Barack Obama's favorite books of the year. "At Night all Blood is Black" is a short but intense read. David Diop, the author, has done an amazing job in generating such a dramatic and captivating composition. The tale will take you on a journey through all of your emotions and touch every neuron in your brain. I only chose this book after it won the Booker Prize, and I was overjoyed to do so. It was amazing to discover a new form of narrative, one in which you can communicate so much in so few words.

Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese man, left his hometown for the first time and joined the French army during World War I as a so-called "Chocolat" soldier. Mademba Diop, his friend-cum-brother and co-soldier, was ruthlessly killed on the battlefield. Mademba asked Alfa to save him from his agony as he was on the verge of death. Alfa failed to do so, and he was driven insane by feelings of remorse, sadness, and vengeance. He executes a gruesome rite that his peers first adore. They grew to fear him over time and devised a strategy to move him away from the front.

The story depicts the atrocities of trench warfare and the tragedies of the battlefield. The insanity that conflicts unleash on soldiers and what they become. Everyone should read this work, in my opinion.