Ndongo Bidyogo, Donato – El Metro (2005)

Novel

Publisher: El Cobre
Publication: 2005
Genre: Novel
Paperback: 464 pages
ISBN: 97-884-9650-122-5

Synopsis

What drives so many Africans to flee their land and migrate to the North? What is the price of this uprooting? What does the proximity of people from other cultures whom we pass on the street or who travel alongside us on the subway suggest to us? Set in today's Africa, where tradition tries to resist the inexorable advance of modernity, this novel narrates the ups and downs of a young African faced with the challenges of existence such as love and the search for well-being and freedom. In this solidly constructed, literary work, the author departs from the autobiographical record of his previous books to give life to characters who pass through history like shadows. Ndongo lucidly poses the desire to overcome the vital and cultural contradictions of an African who, in search of his destiny, goes beyond the land in which he was born. Due to its high literary quality and the excellence of its prose, “El metro” is a work of universal value in which there is no room for indifference and in which, whether we like it or not, we are also the protagonists.

(SOURCE: Casa del Libro)

Review: Montuori, Chad. "Review: 'El metro'". "MESTER", vol. XXXVIII, 2009, 69-71.

Article: Rossini, Ilaria. "Modernità migranti e interstizi di potere:El Metro di Donato Ndongo". "Confluenze" 3, 1, 2011, 126-138.

Interview to Donato Ndongo

Page selection from "El metro". Biblioteca virtual Miguel de Cervantes.