De purs hommes

Everything starts from a viral video, in Senegal. It shows how a man's corpse is unearthed and then dragged out of a graveyard by a crowd. As soon as he sees it, Ndéné Gueye, a young teacher of letters, disappointed by the teaching and tired of the moral hypocrisy of his society, is born an interest, even an obsession, for this event. Who was this man? Why did one exhume one's body? To these questions, only one answer: it was a gor-jigéen , it was said, a "man-woman". In other words, a homosexual. Ndene goes in search of the past of this man, and will even meet his mother. Around him, in academia as in his own family, suspicions and rumors are born, which destabilize him, to the point of disturbing his relationship with his friend Rama, of which he is strongly in love, Rama with generous mouth and abundant and mysterious hair ... In a poetic and scrupulous writing, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr writes here a shocking novel about the only big question that is worthy in the eyes of his hero: how to find the courage to be fully self, without betraying oneself or lying to oneself, and whatever in itself the price?--Philippe Rey.