Camara Laye Book order

Laye Camara, born into a traditional Malinke blacksmith and goldsmith caste, is recognized as a pioneering voice in francophone African literature. His early works, such as the autobiographical novel L'Enfant noir, narrate a personal journey from childhood to France, exploring themes of identity and cultural transition. His subsequent novel, Le Regard du roi, is celebrated as one of the most significant African novels of the colonial era. Camara’s writing delves into the complexities of African experience, blending ancestral traditions with the realities of a changing world.

1965
The Radiance of the King
3.8(109)Add rating
"At the beginning of this book, a masterpiece of African literature, Clarence, a white man, has been shipwrecked and stranded on the coast of Africa. Brimful of self-importance, he demands to see the king, but the king has just left for the south of his realm. Traveling through an increasingly phantasmagoric landscape in the company of a beggar and two roguish boys, Clarence is slowly stripped of his pretensions, until he is sold as a slave to the royal harem. But in the end Clarence's bewildering journey is the occasion of a revelation, as he discovers the image, both shameful and beautiful, of his own strange humanity in the alien figure of the king."
1954
L'Enfant noir
224 pages
8 hours of reading
3.8(1246)Add rating
This loosely autobiographical novel by an African writer from Guinea was first published in 1953 as The dark child. The book won the Prix Charles Veillon in 1954 and is considered one of the first major works in francophone African literature.

The Radiance of the King

L'Enfant noir