Prince of the absurd

摘要

ALAIN MABANCKOU genially holds court at Jip's, an Afro-Cuban salsa bar in Les Halles, central Paris. In a faded denim jacket and his signature flat cap, he modestly shares news of his burgeoning career and tricontinental travels with members of Paris's black communitiesfrom Guadeloupe to Guinea. Whether barmen or budding writers, they could have stepped straight off any page written by this Franco-Congolese novelist who, over the past decade, has come to be known as Africa's Samuel Beckett.