By Inongo vi Makomè
Translated from the Spanish by Michael Ugarte
An original Cameroonian novel, Natives follows two sexually frustrated best friends and an undocumented African immigrant-turned-sex-toy as they grapple with the daily choice between dignity and security.
Publication Date: September 22, 2015
Paperback: 9781939419453
eBook: 9781939419941
Description
Having achieved professional success in Barcelona at the expense of family life, best friends Montse and Roser are dissatisfied and sexually frustrated. Over Catalan champagne and cognac, the two friends hatch a casual plan to employ one of Barcelona’s many undocumented African immigrants as a boy toy. When Montse finds Bambara Keita on a park bench at the Plaza de Cataluña, she knows he is the one, and invites him home. The African’s rags-to-riches experience means sacrificing some of his values in order to survive, as the two women take turns hosting him at their homes. When the details of their arrangement begin to unravel, Bambara Keita must make a decision that will determine the course of his life.
Reviews
“Natives is a wonderful book which is extremely funny and entertaining, placing Inongo-vi-Makomè as a Cameroonian writer to lookout for and hope for many more English translations of his books.” —Bakwa Magazine
Biography
Inongo vi Makomè was born in Lobé-Kribi, Cameroon. Educated in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Spain, he has published over ten novels, essay collections, and oral story collections. He lives in Barcelona, where he contributes to several newspapers and devotes himself to writing and storytelling.
Michael Ugarte is Middlebush Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Missouri. His publications include Madrid 1900: The Capital as Cradle of Culture and Shifting Ground: Spanish Civil War Exile Literature and a translation of Donato Ndongo’s Shadows of Your Black Memory. He lives in Columbia, MO.