Men (25 page)

The quotations from Aimé Césaire are from the translation of Aimé Césaire's
Notebook of a Return to My Native Land
(
Cahier d'un Retour au Pays Natal
), translated by Clayton Eshelman and Annette Smith, Wesleyan University Press, 2001.

Marie Darrieussecq received a Stendhal Travel Grant from the Institut Français for the writing of this novel.

_______________________

1
‘Locked in such a bold embrace, how could I keep my wits about me?' From a popular French song, ‘Mon Amant de Saint-Jean', written by Léon Agel in 1942, interpreted by many singers, including Edith Piaf and Patrick Bruel.

2
A Cameroonian dish of stewed nuts,
ndoleh
leaves and fish or beef.

3
Central African word for a white person, ‘one who has come out of the belly of a fish'.

4
Camfranglais
: Off we go. Let's hit the road.

5
Camfranglais
: forbidden