Days Come and Go

“Though it records family scars, this is a novel about resilience. . . . Following as three generations work to leave their painful legacies behind for the sake of their progeny, Days Come & Go is a multigenerational story about lost innocence—& about perseverance.”—Foreword Reviews

WINNER OF THE 2020 AHMADOU KOUROUMA PRIZE

Chronicling the beauty & turmoil of a rapidly changing Cameroon, Days Come & Go is the remarkable story of three generations of women both within & beyond its borders. Through the voices of Anna, a matriarch living out her final days in Paris; Abi, Anna's thoroughly European daughter (at least in her mother's eyes); & Tina, a teenager who comes under the sway of a militant terrorist faction, Boum's epic is generous & all-seeing.

Brilliantly considering the many issues that dominate her characters' lives—love and politics, tradition & modernity—Days Come & Go, in Nchanji Njamnsi's vivid translation, is a page-turner by way of Frantz Fanon & V. S. Naipaul. As passions rise, fall, & rise again, Boum's stirring English-language debut offers a discerning portrait of a nation that never once diminishes the power of everyday human connection.

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Hemley Boum is the author of four novels, including Les Maquisards, which received the Grand prix littéraire de l’Afrique Noire, and Days Come & Go (Les jours viennent et passent), winner of the Prix Amadou Kourouma, which has been translated into German & Dutch. Hemley was born in Cameroon, where she studied anthropology before relocating to Lille, France, to study international trade. She currently lives in Paris, France.

Nchanji Njamnsi is a translator from Cameroon who has been translating since 2012. He is passionate about the role literary translation should play in intercultural communication. He previously co-translated a short story featured in Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is, a bilingual anthology published in 2020.