Les Paradis Terrestres
By Femi Ojo-Ade

Le personnage principal du roman s'appelle Ayo, nom qui fait évoquer la joie. Pourtant, voilá l'ironie de sa vie; on dirait qu'il est destiné au désastre.
On assiste á ses aventures diverses, á ses efforts de réussir, voire, á sa vie du merginalisé confus entouré d'une communauté d'amis et d'ennemis qui n'arrive jamais á le comprendre. On se demande d'ailleurs s'il se comprend, lui aussi!
Aprés les études au pays symboliquement nommé la Concorde, Ayo rentre au Songhai avec sa fiancée antillaise seulement pour s'enfuir peu aprés, quand le nouveau dictateur décide d'eliminer sa famille. De retour au soi-disant paradis occidental, Ayo n'arrive pas á se faire accepter en immigrant. Ainsi continue son dilemme qui lé méne á une fin tragique.

About the author: Formerly Professor and Head of Department of Foreign Languages at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, FEMI OJO-ADE is currently Professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, USA, where he has been pioneer Coordinator of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program. An internationally recognized scholar of Black Literatures and Cultures, Ojo-Ade is also an award-winning creative writer.

In addition to many articles and essays, he has published eighteen books of criticism, fiction, and poetry. The long list includes:

• A. critical texts: ON BLACK CULTURE; BEING BLACK, BEING HUMAN; DEATH OF A MYTH: CRITICAL ESSAYS ON NIGERIA; KEN SARO-WIWA, A BIO-CRITICAL STUDY; LEON-GONTRAN DAMAS.
• B. fiction: HOME, SWEET, SWEET HOME (translated into Brazilian Portuguese as MAMA AFRICA); DEAD END; BLACK GODS; ONE LITTLE GIRL'S DREAMS.
• C. poetry: EXILE AT HOME.
• D. Ojo-Ade writes in several languages, including his native Yoruba, Englich, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. His first novel in French, LES PARADIS TERRESTRES, was recently co-published by African Heritage Press and Amoge Press.

More information on this writer may be obtaine at: http://www.smcm.edu

His creative works include:

• Dead End (2001)
• The Almond Tree (2000)
• Exile At Home (1998) (Honorable mention 1999 Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury prize for Poetry)
• Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Bio-Critical Study (1999)
• Black Gods (2002)
• One Little Girl’s Dream (wins Association of Nigerian Authors’ Prize for children’s Literature in 1999)
• Home Sweet Sweet Home (Translated into Portuguese)
• Death of a Myth: Critical Essays on Nigeria, Les Paradis Terrestres ( French 2003)

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