Fiston Mujila: Tram 83

· Winner of a FRENCH VOICES AWARD from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, 2014

“ Tram 83 isn’t for the faint of heart, but rather, it’s for those that have a sense of humor, an interest in seedy underbellies, and a willingness to, at times, feel a little lost in the haze of biblical imagery, flippant debauchery, free sex, and anarchy. Ezra Pound would be proud; Mujila ‘made it new.’”

— JOSH COOK, Foreword Reviews

“Talk about verve — and vivre : Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 introduces a rousing, remarkable new voice to this world, surely in its original French, most definitely in Roland Glasser’s superb translation. This book has drive and force and movement, it has hops and chops. It has voices!”

— RICK SIMONSON, ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY (SEATTLE, WA)

“I was totally into the wild formal thug-haunted adventurousness of Tram 83 .”

— FORREST GANDER, author of The Trace

“ Blade Runner in Africa with a John Coltrane soundtrack.”

— MARK HABER, BRAZOS BOOKSTORE (HOUSTON, TX)

“Through observation and conversation, the reader is exposed to the economic boom and cultural bust of contemporary Africa in search of what the future holds for human relationships and survival in a place where tradition and personal histories are quickly being swept under the rug by global forces. Mujila captures chaos in a hypnotic free-jazz rhythm that is so rarely found in novels of this scope.”

— KEVIN ELLIOTT, 57TH STREET BOOKS (CHICAGO, IL)

“ Tram 83 is part Satantango , part Fitzcarraldo , and part Blood Meridian. A dark, funny, and true accomplishment.”

— CHAD FELIX, WORD BOOKSTORES (BROOKLYN, NY & JERSEY CITY, NJ)

“Q: What if Césaire beat Houellebecq at his own game? A: Tram 83 .”

— DUSTIN KURTZ

“ Tram 83 reads like a modern, twisted The Great Gatsby . …An unaffected view of humanity that is at once repulsive, hilarious, and oddly uplifting. …The novel, like the nightclub, is eccentric and somewhat disturbing, yet inclusive and universally appealing.”

— CAITLIN THOMAS, Three Percent

More international praise for Fiston Mwanza Mujila & Tram 83

· Winner of the GRAND PRIX SGDL DU PREMIER ROMAN ( for Debut Novel ), 2014

· Shortlisted for the PRIX DU MONDE ( Le Monde Literary Prize ) , 2014

· Shortlisted for the PRIX WEPLER-FONDATION LA POSTE, 2014

·LITERARY PRIZE OF THE CITY OF GRAZ, Austria, 2014

·GOLDEN MEDAL IN LITERATURE of the VI Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut

“A real discovery among this season’s novels.”

— author ALAIN MABANCKOU, Jeune Afrique

“One of the more exciting discoveries of the fall … Frenetic, flamboyant, and intense, there are touches of Hieronymus Bosch. An insolent, globe-trotting Bosch, who would have read Gabriel García Márquez and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.”

— Le Monde

“Invigorating and astounding, the linguistic creativity of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s writing paints a vivid picture of an imaginary Africa.”

— Le Populaire du Centre

“A debut novel with a vertiginous rhythm. Picaresque poetry turned into music by a mix of slam and a series of loops and turns as bewitching as a sustained jazz melody.”

— Livres Hebdo

“ Tram 83 is a high-speed trip, a tragic, burlesque, melancholic, melodic tale.”

— LIRE Magazine

“Watch out for this blazing comet! Tram 83 will sweep you off your feet like a Coltrane number, and never put you down again.”

— Rolling Stone (France)

“Mujila has invented “locomotive literature,” and the genre of the “stage-tale,” making his debut novel the manifesto for a convulsive poetic prose, a cross between Aimé Césaire and Boris Vian.”

— Le Nouvel Observateur

“A novel of mind-blowing, poetic beauty.”

— Point Magazine

“This debut novel heralds a promising literary career.”

— Notre Afrik

I was fortunate enough to get to read some of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s poetry a few years back. I didn’t know at the time that he was busy writing a novel, or for that matter the degree to which I would be moved by his new work and how each page would bring me so much joy. When I turned the last page, I exclaimed: “This is a masterpiece!”

Fiston Mwanza Mujila took the French literary scene by storm in 2014. His native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the most populated countries in Africa, had been waiting for some time for a great novelist to come along, a novelist who was truly one of theirs, speaking their language. Fiston has met their expectations.

Tram 83 is written with the kind of magic one finds in only the best of storytellers, an astute observer of everyday life and a genuine philosopher. His words bring to life the city of Lubumbashi, filled with a cast of characters, writers, drunkards, drug dealers, dreamers, lost souls, all living side by side in the popular neighborhoods in which all of life’s pleasures are traded. And then there’s also the “trashy side” of life, the drugs and the vodka, a glimpse at the underbelly of life that is so rarely featured in sub-Saharan African literature, a world far from the images on the postcards sold to tourists. Fiston’s novel has lifted the veil Africa has been compelled to wear over the years, and she now stands naked before us. His voice is original, a genuine breath of fresh air, and we will surely be following this exciting new voice in the years to come. I can hardly believe Tram 83 is a first novel … So much creativity, linguistic innovation, and such a pleasure to read!

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE STONE, AND THE STONE PROMPTED OWNERSHIP, AND OWNERSHIP A RUSH, AND THE RUSH BROUGHT AN INFLUX OF MEN OF DIVERSE APPEARANCE WHO BUILT RAILROADS THROUGH THE ROCK, FORGED A LIFE OF PALM WINE, AND DEVISED A SYSTEM, A MIXTURE OF MINING AND TRADING.

Northern Station. Friday. Around seven or nine in the evening.

“Patience, friend, you know full well our trains have lost all sense of time.”

The Northern Station was going to the dogs. It was essentially an unfinished metal structure, gutted by artillery, train tracks, and locomotives that called to mind the railroad built by Stanley, cassava fields, cut-rate hotels, greasy spoons, bordellos, Pentecostal churches, bakeries, and noise engineered by men of all generations and nationalities combined. It was the only place on earth you could hang yourself, defecate, blaspheme, fall into infatuation, and thieve without regard to prying eyes. Indeed, an air of connivance hung ever about the place. Jackals don’t eat jackals. They pounce on the turkeys and partridges, and devour them. According to the fickle but ever-recurring legend, the seeds of all resistance movements, all wars of liberation, sprouted at the station, between two locomotives. And as if that weren’t enough, the same legend claims that the building of the railroad resulted in numerous deaths attributed to tropical diseases, technical blunders, the poor working conditions imposed by the colonial authorities — in short, all the usual clichés.