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At Night All Blood Is Black

The International Booker Prize 2021

Winner
Shortlist
Longlist

David Diop, a French writer and academic, won the prize with his unsettling tale, translated by Anna Moschovakis, of two Senegalese soldiers fighting in the trenches of the First World War

Diop, who is half-Senegalese, spent much of his childhood in Dakar and was inspired to write At Night All Blood is Black by the lack of historical information around the many African soldiers who fought and died for France in the war. As an academic, Diop specialises in 18th century literature, and his novel, in which a soldier is unhinged by the death of his comrade, weaves in old European racial stereotypes of African savagery. In the poet and novelist Moschovakis, Diop found an attuned translator: she too has split heritage - American and Greek.

Watch videos

The 2021 International Booker Prize – virtual winner ceremony

Fiona Shaw reads from When We Cease To Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

Actor Fiona Shaw reads an extract from When We Cease To Understand the World, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, in a performance for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Lucy Phelps reads from The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, transl. Megan McDowell

Actor Lucy Phelps reads an extract from The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, in a performance created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Ken Nwosu reads from At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis

Actor Ken Nwosu reads an extract from At Night All Blood is Black, winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize, in a performance created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Lucy Phelps reads from The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken

Actor Lucy Phelps reads an extract from The Employees, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, in a video created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Ken Nwosu reads from 'The War of the Poor' by Eric Vuillard, translated by Mark Polizzotti

Actor Ken Nwosu reads an extract from The War of the Poor, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Fiona Shaw reads from In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale

Actor Fiona Shaw reads an extract from In Memory of Memory, shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, in a performance created for Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and directed by Blanche McIntyre.
 

At Night All Blood is Black
At Night All Blood Is Black

At Night All Blood is Black

Winner of The International Booker Prize 2021

Translated by
Anna Moschovakis
Published by
Pushkin Press
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2021. A hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness, shattered by grief and the horror of war

The shortlist

The longlist

The 2021 judges

Watch the ceremony

Held virtually in 2021 due to the continuing Covid-19 restrictions at the time.
Discover more about 2021’s shortlisted books and witness the winning author and translator as they find out that they are the recipients of the 2021 International Booker Prize.