In Nigeria today. A man and a woman – a painter who traces on his canvas fleeting memories of other lives, other deaths, a beautician, the wife of a fighter lost in the war against Boko Haram, who flees with her daughter from the demons of sexism. A romantic mural bathed in magical realism where, in the heart of the capital of Africa’s most populous country, at night, nameless and eternally young children collect fragile fireflies that have become the souls of the dead. But above all, an uncompromising picture of contemporary Nigeria scanned in quasi-documentary writing, between hallucinatory journey and metaphysical quest.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim was born in 1979; A committed journalist, he has seen three of his books translated into French, and is recognized for his work with female victims of jihadism.
“The Season of Flame Flowers” received the Nigerian Literary Award in 2015, the most prestigious in the country.
“When we were fireflies” by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, translated from English (Nigerian) by Marc Amfreville., ed. Julliard, 492 pp., €25, ebook, €16.99.
