Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

I Was an Elephant Salesman: Adventures Between Dakar, Paris, and Milan

Graziella Parati

0/5 ( ratings)

A landmark bestseller in Italy, I Was an Elephant Salesman gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. Through the voice of a thinly veiled first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other "African" trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity.

Language: English

Pages: 158

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Release: August 01, 2010

ISBN: 025322232X

ISBN 13: 9780253222329

I Was an Elephant Salesman: Adventures Between Dakar, Paris, and Milan

Graziella Parati

0/5 ( ratings)

A landmark bestseller in Italy, I Was an Elephant Salesman gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. Through the voice of a thinly veiled first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other "African" trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity.

Language: English

Pages: 158

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Release: August 01, 2010

ISBN: 025322232X

ISBN 13: 9780253222329

More books from Graziella Parati

Mediterranean Crossroads: Migration Literature in Italy

Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture

Public History, Private Stories: Italian Women’s Autobiography

Migrant Writers and Urban Space in Italy: Proximities and Affect in Literature and Film

The Cultures of Italian Migration

Italy and the Cultural Politics of World War I

New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies: Volume 1: Definitions, Theory, and Accented Practices

New Perspectives in Italian Culture Studies: The Arts and History

Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives (The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies)

Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives (The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies)

The Cultures of Italian Migration: Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspectives (The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies)

Rate this book!

Write a review?