A Long Way From Douala by Max Loube

Softback. Small Axes. 2021 (2018). New.

Important issues of violence, terrorism, homosexuality and migration feature in A Long Way From Douala, the first publication in English of a work by Max Lobe, an important new voice in African writing.

On the trail of Roger, a brother who has gone north in search of football fame in Europe, Choupi, the narrator, takes with him the older Simon, a neighborhood friend. The bus trip north nearly ends in disaster when, at a pit stop, Simon goes wandering in search of grilled caterpillars. At the police station in Yaoundé, the local cop tells them that a feckless boza who wants to go to Europe is not worth police effort and their mother should go and pleasure the police chief if she wants help! Through a series of joyful sparky vignettes, Cameroon life is revealed in all its ups and downs. Questions of life and death are raised but the tone remains light and edgy.