Wonderful news today! We’re delighted to announce that Scholastique Mukasonga’s Kibogo is a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. Kibogo is a sharp, darkly humorous account of the clash between Rwandans and the colonizers, missionaries, and academics that attempt to suppress their autonomy and cultural inheritance. In an interview with Scholastique and Mark in Words Without Borders, Mark says that Kibogo‘s narrator “never loses her grasp of human folly and self-delusion, her sense of the absurd, or her irreverent eye . . .” You can order the book here and you can read more about this year’s finalists in the New York Times. Huge congratulations to Mark and Scholastique!

A triumph . . . Biting and gloriously satirical, Mukasonga’s novel shows how stories can wield a power that is greater than the sword, resisting ownership by any one person or power. It is a rich and hilarious work.