Forget about the picturesque images – what this debut novel from a young author reveals is a whole other Djibouti: the country’s implacable desert, mind-boggling disarray, formidable whores and soldiers gone half-mad with drink and loneliness. Between scenes of hallucinating violence and poetic descriptions of the capital’s seedier sides, Pierre Deram takes us along with his hero, Markus, on a coming-of-age journey across Djibouti. Tomorrow, Markus reminds himself over and over, I’m going back to Paris tomorrow... This last night in Africa is a chance for a string of memorable and visionary descriptions. From fistfights to fleeting embraces, clichés of virility exaggerated to the point of bestiality, but tender emotions are never far behind, Djibouti exposes the overwhelming ferocity of human relations. More than just an exotic setting, Djibouti is the stage for heightened sensations, exacerbated emotions and the despair that turns both the prostitutes and the legionnaires into children of violence and beauty: a failed state, a sublime country, the cradle of humanity, and a vessel in distress.

A debut novel of uncommon power and beauty. A real revelation and a truly promising talent.