The Silence of the Choir

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr author Alison Anderson translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Europa Editions (UK) Ltd

Published:26th Sep '24

£14.99

This title is due to be published on 26th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Silence of the Choir cover

Seventy-two men arrive in the Sicilian countryside. They are “immigrants”, “refugees” or “migrants”. But in Altino, they are called the ragazzi, the ‘guys’ that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. And their presence changes the course of life in this small Sicilian town. 

While they await their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to offering them asylum, a man determined to refuse it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes.

Each character, wherever they may come from, is forced to reflect on what it means to meet people they know nothing about. As each brings a different view, a cacophony of discordant voices resonates to the end, when the final one reduces the choir to silence.  

“The most promising Senegalese writer of his generation.” * Le Monde *
“A raucously polyphonic novel.” * The New Yorker *

ISBN: 9781787705067

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

368 pages