"I can think what I want. But I won't tell-the depths to which the war drove me...the weight of shame...the day Mademba Diop died".

Alfa Ndiaye and Mademba Diop lived in a small Senegalese village. At age 20, they decided to join the French army's fight against Germany in WWI. With rifle in one hand, machete in the other, told to scream like "savages", they left the trenches to intimidate, scare and shock the enemy. "I found the...soldiers foolish-soldiers, black or white, when commanded to leave the shelter of their trench...with a savage cry...the captain has told them they are great warriors, so they love to get killed while singing...".

The day Mademba was mortally wounded, "I couldn't cut the barbed wire of his suffering...I let duty make my choice". Mademba cried, "...if you are my brother, Alfa...I'm begging you...slit my throat...I would no longer listen to the voice of duty, the voice that commands...but it was too late".

"I am not concerned with my trenchmates...what I want is to fight face-to-face...I always returned after battle with an enemy rifle and the hand that went with it...". Trophies...I was lauded...until the fourth rifle and hand...now shunned, feared by my war brothers...I became untouchable, a soldier sorcerer.

Through back stories, the bond between Alfa Ndiaye and Mademba Diop is conveyed to the reader. Motherless Alfa was embraced by the Diop family, fragile Mademba became physically fit under Alfa's tutelage. Now Alfa's guilt and regret are unbearable. "I didn't really listen to Mademba, my childhood friend, my more-than-brother,...I thought only of...the blue-eyed enemy...I listened to the voice of revenge". Alfa is coming undone. Plans hurriedly are made to remove him from the trenches.

"At Night All Blood is Black" by David Diop was "selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens (2018). It is an intense, riveting historical novel of a young man's decent into madness. Alfa was forced to make a moral decision, a no win choice. Regret, horror, and the expendability of soldiers, especially those from the colonies, are this tome's hot button topics and make for a graphically compelling read. This tome was unputdownable despite its darkness and Alfa's battle with his demons during WWI.

Thank you Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Alfa Ndaiye, a "Chocolat" soldier fighting for France in World War I. Alfa joined the war with his more-than-brother Mademba in the hopes of seeing the world and making a better life for themselves. What they weren't prepared for was the brutality of war and France's use of their people - arming them with guns and machetes, instructing them to run onto the battlefield screaming, inspiring fear in their enemy's blue eyes as they survey the savage brutal killing machines from Africa.

When Alfa find Mademba on the battlefield in the aftermath of a scrummage, sliced in the belly with his insides on his outsides, Mademba requests a final blow from Alfa, which he is unable to deliver. Mademba's death begins to haunt Alfa, he wishes he had shown mercy to his friend and relieved him of the final moments of suffering. Alfa descends into madness and begins murdering German's, one at a time, in the same method in which Mademba was killed. He brings back a souvenir from each, a hand - one that only minutes before had held a gun that killed some of his brother's in arms. At first Alfa is praised, but then his allies seem to distance themselves from him and begin to whisper that he is a soul sucker, and that it was he who caused his more than brother Mademba's death. The general, recognising Alfa's descent into madness, sends him to the rear for recovery, where his stability is assessed. Alfa is sure of one thing, if they find the hands they will send him onto the battlefield for certain death, and he must keep them hidden at all costs.

Told from first person, Alfa's brutal description of events grabs the reader from the start. The barbarianism and horrors of war are brought to life with vivid images and haunting prose. My only complaint is that the story was somewhat repetitive. The paragraph would be repeated on later pages only to expand on the happenings the second round. Understanding that the narrator was suffering from PTSD - this could have been intentional. It took nothing away from the story at all it was just very noticeable.

This is story I will not forget!

I can not wait to dive all the way into this book. I'm gripped by the first pages. The prose here is stunning "like that, all of a sudden without warning, it hit me brutally in the head, like a giant seed of war dropped from the metallic sky, the day Mademba Diop died." woosh... I'm afraid as a judge for a book contest I can't offer more information but just thank you for publishing this book.

This book chronicles the life of a Sengalese fighter in the first World War. He was called a "Chocolat" soldier. I found that part of this novel very interesting. I knew very little about the Sengalese involvement in WWI and I always like the opportunity to learn while reading.

This story tells the tale of Alfa and how he slowly becomes insane. It also has elements of black magic. This book told a tale of a time in WWI that is long forgotten which made this story all the more appealing to me. It was quite unique.

I felt the writing, however, to be a little choppy and strained at times. Otherwise, I thought this was a very well-done, character-driven novel. Well done.

In “At Night All Blood is Black”, the experience of the narrator’s disintegration into madness in the aftermath of his friend’s agonizing death frankly almost makes “All Quiet on the Western Front” feel like a light read (comparatively so). For a work that is little over a hundred pages, it packs a power that easily makes it the equal of any of the great anti-war classics.