Indiana University Press
I Was an Elephant Salesman: Adventures Between Dakar, Paris, and Milan
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Title: I Was an Elephant Salesman: Adventures Between Dakar, Paris, and Milan
Author: Pap Khouma
ISBN: 9780253222329
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2010
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 138
Publisher Description: <p>A landmark bestseller in Italy, <i>I Was an Elephant Salesman</i> gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. Through the voice of a thinly veiled first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other African trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity.</p>
Author: Pap Khouma
ISBN: 9780253222329
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2010
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 138
Publisher Description: <p>A landmark bestseller in Italy, <i>I Was an Elephant Salesman</i> gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. Through the voice of a thinly veiled first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other African trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity.</p>
