Nathacha Appanah
| Nathacha Devi Pathareddy Appanah | |
|---|---|
| Born |
24 May 1973 Mauritius |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | French |
| Nationality | Mauritius |
| Ethnicity | Indian |
| Genre | Labor migration |
| Notable awards | Prix du Livre RFO |
Nathacha Devi Pathareddy Appanah (born 1973) is a Mauritian-French author. She comes from a traditional Indian family. She spent most of her teenage years in Mauritius and also worked as a journalist/columnist at Le Mauricien and Week-End Scope before emigrating to France. She was a contributor to poetry and news section during her tenure in the magazines.
Since 1998, Nathacha Appanah is well known as an active writer. Her first book Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or (published by Éditions Gallimard) received the "Prix du Livre RFO" award. The book was based on the arrival of Indian indentured workers in Mauritius. Her other works like Tropic of violence detailing struggles during Nazi attack and migration to Czechoslovakia and Tropic of violence based on children on the streets of Mayotte are critically acclaimed.
Early life
Appanah was born in Mauritius on 24 May 1973. She is from a traditional Indian family named Pathareddy Appanah. Her first language is Mauritian creole, like most people from Mauritius.[1] She had her early education in Mauritius. She worked as a journalist in Le Mauricien and Weekend Scope, popular magazines in Mauritius. She migrated to France during 1998, after which she started with her writing career.[2] During her tenure in the magazines, she published poetry and news about Mauritius.[3]
Works
Her first novel was The rocks of gold dust, published in the collection Dark Continents by famous French publisher Gallimard. Blue Bay Palace was her second novel and it details the passion an Indian young for marrying other caste counterparts.[3] She also wrote two other books Blue Bay Palace (2003, Éditions Gallimard) and La Noce d'Anna (2005, Éditions Gallimard) which also received some prizes for best book in some regional festivals in France. The latter is set entirely in France. In 2007, she released her fourth book Le Dernier Frère Ed de L'Olivier, which went on to win the Prix FNAC.[4]
Her work Tropic of violence is based on children on the streets of Mayotte. The struggle of the Department of Migratory authorities and the delinquency of youth has been pictured in the novel. In her own words, Appanah narrates that "I lived in Mayotte from 2008 to 2010 and had been struck by the number of children in the streets. They were not abandoned, they were not the round they were playing happily on every street corner , some were even occasionally at school and in the evening, they found a roof."[4] Her novel The Last Brother is based on an orphaned Jew who escaped Nazi invasion of Czhechoslovkia and was denied entry in British-run Palestine. In a review published in The Guardian about the novel, it has been quoted as "a brilliant and believable account, a compelling picture of a child's loneliness and of the brief, feverish excitement when it ends".[5] Newyork Times rated her fourth novel, The Last Brother next only to 2008 Nobel Prize winner J. M. G. Le Clézio among all Mauritan writers. The book was translated in English by Strachan and was her second work to be translated.[6]
References
- ↑ La langue française vue de l'Afrique ... – Google 도서. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
- ↑ "Biography of Natacha Appanah". African Success. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- 1 2 "Nathacha appanah-Mouriquand". Crop Jamaica. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- 1 2 "Nathacha appanah and the situation of minors in Mayotte". LE Express. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ↑ Smart, James (12 March 2012). "The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ↑ Sofer, Dalia (4 February 2011). "Castaways". Sunday Book Review. Retrieved 5 November 2016.