Concrete Flowers. Wilfried N'Sondé

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      concrete flowers

      GLOBAL AFRICAN VOICES

      Dominic Thomas, editor

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      Transit: A Novel

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      The Shameful State: A Novel

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      Foreword by Alain Mabanckou

      Kaveena

      Boubacar Boris Diop

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      The Heart of the Leopard Children

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      Harvest of Skulls

      Abdourahman A. Waberi

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      Jazz and Palm Wine

      Emmanuel Dongala

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      The Silence of the Spirits

      Wilfried N’Sondé

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      In Koli Jean Bofane

      Translated by Marjolijn de Jager

      concrete

      flowers

      Wilfried N’Sondé

      TRANSLATED BY KAREN LINDO

      INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS

      This book is a publication of

      Indiana University Press

      Office of Scholarly Publishing

      Herman B Wells Library 350

      1320 East 10th Street

      Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

       iupress.indiana.edu

      Originally published in French as Fleur de béton

      © 2012 Actes Sud

      English translation

      © 2018 by Indiana University Press

      All rights reserved

      No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.

      978-0-253-03559-2 (pbk.)

      978-0-253-03560-8 (web PDF)

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      To Anna-Maria C.

      . . . you never say a word, sometimes the sound that you

      make, is like animals crying.

      LÉO FERRÉ

      What if we were to take off together,

      Toward a peace so tender and complete

      And reappear from our ashes,

      So beautiful, yet it makes me shiver!

      SARTRE WILFRIED PARACLET JACKSIMON N’SONDÉ

      concrete flowers