Ambiguous Adventure

“Ambiguous Adventure is hauntingly urgent, provocative and occasionally overpowering.” —Nick DiMartino, Shelf Awareness

“A fine novel. . . The philosophical dialogue between the West and Africa has rarely been better presented than in Ambiguous Adventure. . . The hero of the novel, the deliverer-to-be and paragon of the new generation, returns from France a total spiritual wreck, his once vibrant sense of community hopelessly shattered. Summoned to assume the mantle of leadership, his tortured soul begs to be excused, to be left alone. ‘What have their problems to do with me?’ he asks. ‘I am only myself. I have only me.’ Poor fellow; the West has got him!”
—Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart

“From within his profoundly Muslim personality, Diallo mani- fests the quintessence of African humanity and the destiny of the black race.”
—Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate

“My favorite novel. . . a complicated but brilliant novel about interracial relations.”
—Angélique Kidjo, Grammy Award– winning singer-songwriter

“It is a work that summarizes and brings into focus the ideas and attitudes that lie at the center of inspiration of all French African writing.”
—Abiola Irele, Lectures Africanes

“Lucid and philosophical.” —The Brooklyn Rail

“Exceptionally beautiful. . . . highly original. . . oddly moving. Ambiguous Adventure is an indispensable book for anyone wish- ing to delve into the psychology of colonialism.”
—Words Without Borders

“Cheikh Hamidou Kane, avoiding the temporal and political ele- ment of his subject matter, the anguish of being black, lands upon a reflection that concerns us all: the anguish of being human.”
—J. Chevrier, Le Monde

“It has passages of extravagant mysticism … leaves a strong impression of a writer who has thought deeply about questions of modernity and tradition.”
—Inside Story