The French-Congolese journalist, poet and teacher is best known for his incredibly hilarious fiction – about porcupines, serial killers or bar flies – which won him countless accolades. He’ll be participating in two events – an encounter with a Brazzaville bar (Sep 5, 19:00), and a panel discussion featuring voices from the Congo (Sep 5, 11:00).
Describe yourself in three words starting with the same letter…
Perseverant, pragmatic, pessimist (sometimes).
Your favourite character?
Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye; he’s as naïve as me when I was a teenager.
Your recurring literary nightmare?
The first sentence.
A book you wish you had written?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
Your first memory of writing…
It was a poem written in the Congo with the aim of seducing a girl. It didn’t work out, but I kept the poem and published it later in France.
If I weren’t a writer I’d be…
A musician (guitarist).