Texaco | Granta

  • Published: 24/05/2018
  • ISBN: 9781783784349
  • 132x20mm
  • 400 pages

Texaco

Patrick Chamoiseau

Translated by Rose-Myriam Rejouis, Val Vinokurov

‘One of the major fictional achievements of our century’ The Times

On the edge of Fort de France, the capital of Martinique, squats a shanty town. It goes by the name of Texaco.

One dawn, a stranger arrives – an urban planner, bearing news. Texaco is to be razed to the ground. And so he is lead to Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the ancient keeper of Texaco’s history, who invites her guest to take a seat and begins the true story of all that is to be lost.

Texaco is a creole masterpiece. Told in a newly forged language, it is a riotous collage of indigenous Caribbean and colonial European influences; a kaleidoscopic epic of slavery and revolution, superstition and imagination; a story of human deceits and desires played out to the backdrop of uncontrollable, all powerful History. First published in 1992, it was awarded France’s highest literary award, the Prix Goncourt, and remains an unequivocal classic of Caribbean literature.

This is a magnificent, important book

Observer

You have to read this book

Derek Walcott

Texaco made everything I'd ever loved about reading feel new

Guardian

The Author

Patrick Chamoiseau was born in 1953 in Martinique, where he still lives. He is the author of several books and long essays in French, including Chronique des sept miseres and Solibo Magnifique. Texaco won the Prix Goncourt in 1992.

More about the author →

From the Same Author

Solibo Magnificent

Patrick Chamoiseau, translated by Rose-Myriam Rejouis,Val Vinokurov

Patrick Chamoiseau on Granta.com

Fiction | The Online Edition

The Rat

Patrick Chamoiseau

‘Fort-de-France, at that time, had not yet declared war on rats. Along with the crabs, they inhabited the crumbled sidewalks and canals of the city. ’