David Diop's most recent novel Frère d'âme (E: At Night All Blood is Black, G: Nachts ist unser Blut schwarz, Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, Book of the Year Award, International Booker Prize) centres on the First World War and the experiences of 'Senegalese Tirailleurs' fighting for France in the trenches. Witnessing the brutal death of his childhood friend Mademba, the protagonist Alfa Ndiaye is set on revenge. When he keeps returning from the trenches with the gun of a killed German soldier, his fellow troops' admiration gradually turns into fear.

Andreas Jandl, recpient of the Eugen Helmlé Prize for translators and currently guest professor at HHU's MA Literary Translation has translated Diops novel into German. Jandl will draw on his translation diary when discussing the challenges of a novel that is permeated by colonial violence. Aspects of the English translation by Anna Moschovakis will also be discussed.

Cooperation with Institut français Düsseldorf (event series: "Übersetzen. Im Herzen der Gewalt" / "Translation: In the heart of violence").

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