Archipelago Books to Release RETURN TO MY NATIVE LAND by Aimé Césaire

A work of immense cultural significance and beauty, this long poem became an anthem for the African diaspora and the birth of the Negritude movement. With unusual juxtapositions of object and metaphor, a bouquet of language-play, and deeply resonant rhythms, Césaire considered this work a "break into the forbidden," at once a cry of rebellion and a celebration of black identity.

In the words of poet Yusef Komunyakaa:
Return to My Native Land is a monumental tome to our times, and this new translation by John Berger and Anya Bostock possesses the tropical heat of the poet's sonority. Though, in his refrain, Aimé Césaire intones "the small hours," there isn't anything small about the raw lyricism articulated into this incantation of fiery wit. The translators convey the spirit of improvisation, yet, with a deftness of image and music, they deliver this book-length poem as a seamless work of art-an existential cry against a man-made void. What translates is the speaker's revolutionary psyche on to the page-his fierce affirmation of existence through an eloquent clarity of the real and surreal. Nowhere is Césaire's passion sacrificed; this translation is a tribute to the poet.

Return to My Native Land

by Aimé Césaire

Translated from French by Anna Bostock, John Berger

Coming June 2014

Paperback: $12.80 (20% off!) // eBook: $9.99