African Book

For the Russian reader, Africa is still terra incognita. Its diverse geography corresponds to an abundance of unique and completely different cultures. Alexander Stesin - a writer, poet, and doctor - has spent many years traveling through this still not fully explored continent, immersing himself in its everyday life and history. He treats typhus in the desert and malaria in the jungle, studies the Swahili and Chwi languages, collects matsutake mushrooms in Madagascar, compares the cuisines of Senegal and Somalia, translates local classics and contemporary authors. Before us is a new type of African text for Russian literature: a hundred years after the travels of Nikolai Gumilev, Stesin finds himself as a mediator between cultures, dismantling long-established stereotypes about the continent, which may be key to shaping the future.