Using the playful, orally inspired, and partially invented language for which he is renowned, Patrick Chamoiseau recalls the brilliant, magical universe of his early childhood in Martinique. At the center of this universe is his extraordinarily vigorous mother and her creative, pragmatic ways of coping with poverty and five children. As Chamoiseau presents these first impressions of an exceptional child growing up in a rich Creole culture, he also reflects in oblique but incisive ways on colonialism. He probes the boundary between reality and imagination, between the child’s awakening understanding and the adult’s memory of those earlier days.

Patrick Chamoiseau is fast emerging as one of the preeminent writers in the world today. His novel Texaco won the Prix Goncourt in 1992. Childhood covers the period just prior to that recounted in his memoir School Days (Nebraska 1997).

 

Carol Volk’s many translations include Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Corruption, Emmanuel Bove’s Night Departure, and Amelie Nothomb’s The Stranger Next Door.