The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sabr

´On est chez nous! Ils nous envahissent!´

I´ve read Silence du Choeur - translated into English as The Silence of the Choir by Alison Anderson; personally I had access to the French version - by Mohamed Mbougar Sabr at the very beginning of the year, but until now it remains the most profound books I´ve read so far.

The novel follows the individual and collective journey of a group of 72 men who arrived in Sicily by the sea from Africa. They - the ´ragazzi´, the boys in Italian - are faced with curiosity, or simple aggressivity, and around their presence, an entire conundrum of disinformation, fear and even open violence develops day by day. As in a choir, the voices of the men unite in a reflection of the multiplicity of experiences and human nature, ultimately the aim at dignity.

The Senegal-born, Paris-based author uses a wide array of literary genres to tell the story: theater, transliterated poetry, diary. The human experience in its literary translation. On the Italian side, also a diverse cast of characters, individualized by their social function - priest, politician - or their (mis)behavior: corrupt or racist. 

There is a big gap between the reasons of ragazzi for leaving their homes and the reaction of the local people. The ragazzi were running from poverty and corruption. They were welcomed with distrust by the fear of taking away the rightful middle class comfort - ´(...) les migrants nous volent notre travail, notre dignité, notre fierté, notre vie´.

In my everyday life, I may meet both categories, but rarely both of them at the same time. In this book I was able to see the both point of view counter-reflected, which gives more depth and a larger perspective which places the dramatism of human experience on the forefront.

With such a wide array of characters is almost impossible to keep them all under literary control. Compared to the narrative, outside the common voice of the story, many of the individual characters may seem unfinished or unclear. But I suppose it is an assumed risk which does not affect at any extent the deeply human(ist) message of this beautiful book.

Rating: 4.5 stars