David Diop (novelist)

For the 20th-century French West African poet, see David Diop.

David Diop (born 1966) is a French novelist and academic. A specialist in 18th-century literature, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens in 2018 for his novel Frère d'âme.

Biography

David Diop was born in Paris in 1966. He spent a large part of his childhood in Senegal before returning to study in France.

In 1998, he became a lecturer in literature at the University of Pau and the Adour Region. He now heads the arts, languages, and literature department at the university.

He published his first book, a work of historical fiction titled 1889, l'Attraction universelle, in 2012. In 2018, he published his first full-length scholarly work, Rhétorique nègre au xviii^e siècle, which deals with the representation of Africans in 18th-century travel writing and abolitionist texts.

His second novel, Frère d'âme, which interweaves the history of World War I with the history of colonialism, was published in 2018. That year, he received the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for the novel.

Frère d'âme was released in English translation in November 2020, with the title At Night All Blood Is Black.

Selected works

• 1889, l'Attraction universelle (2012)
• Rhétorique nègre au xviii^e siècle (2018)
• Frère d'âme (2018)
• At Night All Blood Is Black (English translation by Anna Moschovakis, 2020)