At Night All blood Is black by David Diop

At Night All Blood Is Black is an extraordinarily powerful short novel by French Senegalese novelist David Diop, giving a voice to the Senegalese men who fought for France on the Western Front during World War I.

After watching his close friend Mademba die slowly and painfully in no man’s land, Alfa absorbs the brutality of war and lets it consume him.

Diop’s hypnotic prose traces Alfa’s journey into madness and grief, his mind whirring through the tumult of his life as a young boy with his mother, and as a young man with Mademba.

We see the contrast of Alfa experiencing physical love, then inflicting pain on men behind enemy lines.

Rooted in eternal friendship and the destructive impact of war, At Night All Blood Is Black is a tragic glimpse into what anguish and trauma can do to a young man’s mind.