{"product_id":"the-land-without-shadows-9780813925080","title":"The Land Without Shadows","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the first literary works to portray Djiboutians from their own point of view, \u003ci\u003eThe Land without Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of seventeen short stories. The author, Abdourahman A. Waberi, one of a handful of francophone writers of fiction to have emerged in the twentieth century from the \"confetti-sized state\" of Djibouti, has already won international recognition and prizes in African literature for his stories and novel. Because his writing is linked to immigration and exile, his native Djibouti occupies center stage in his work. Drawing on the Somali\/Djiboutian oral tradition to weave pieces of legend, proverbs, music, poetry, and history together with references to writers as diverse as Soyinka, Shakespeare, Djebar, Baudelaire, C saire, Waugh, Senghor, and Beckett, Waberi succeeds in bringing his country into a context that reaches well beyond the Horn of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOriginally published in France in 1994 as \u003ci\u003eLe Pays sans ombre, \u003c\/i\u003e this newly translated collection presents stories about the precolonial and colonial past of Djibouti alongside those set in the postcolonial era. With irony and humor, these short stories portray madmen, poets, artists, French colonists, pseudointellectuals, young women, aspiring politicians, famished refugees, khat chewers, nomads struggling to survive in Djibouti's ruthless natural environment, or tramps living (and dying) in Balbala, the shantytown that stretches to the south of the capital. Waberi's complex web of allusions locates his tales at an intersection between history and ethnography, politics and literature. While written in a narrative prose, these stories nevertheless call on an indigenous literary tradition that elevates poetry to the highest standing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy juxtaposing the present with the past, the individual with the collective, the colonized with the colonizer, the local with the global, \u003ci\u003eThe Land without Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e composes an image of Djibouti that is at times both kaleidoscopic and cinematographic. Here the art of the short story offers partial but brilliantly illuminated scenes of the Djiboutian urban and rural landscape, its people, and its history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor sale in the U.S. and its territories only\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-2327220\"\u003eAbdourahman A. Waberi\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Virginia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/14\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.38lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.46h x 5.50w x 0.38d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780813925080\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0813925088\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC000000\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbdourahman A. Waberi is a Djiboutian-born writer now living in France, where he also teaches English. He is the author of several award-winning works of fiction and poetry, the most recent of which is the novel \u003ci\u003eTransit.\u003c\/i\u003e Nuruddin Farah is the author of several books, including, most recently, \u003ci\u003eLinks.\u003c\/i\u003e He is an acclaimed winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Jeanne Garane is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Virginia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44317920493805,"sku":"9780813925080","price":35.83,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_77347af4-e4b1-4364-965c-2460f730c664.jpg?v=1697737289","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/the-land-without-shadows-9780813925080","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}