Whites Can Dance Too
- Auteur: Kalaf Epalanga (Angola)
- Soort boek: Angolese roman
- Origineel:
- Engelse vertaling: Daniel Hahn
- Uitgever: Faber & Faber
- Verschijnt: 31 juli 2025
- Omvang: 336 pagina’s
- Prijs: £ 9,99
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
Kalaf Epalanga Whites Can Dance Too review en recensie
- “A hugely original, lyrical odyssey through space and identity. Epalanga is one of the most essential voices from that liminal space between Africa and Europe, and though this novel’s flavours are specific, its themes are universal.” (Johny Pitts, author of Afropean: Notes from Black Europe)
- “Both a manifesto and a love story … Electrifying … What you will find is a story so compelling and visceral that it has the power to move your heart and remind you that the only real borders are the ones we set around ourselves.” (Maaza Mengiste)
Flaptekst van de roman van de Angolese schrijver Kalaf Epalanga
An exhilarating debut novel told through three different voices, Whites Can Dance Too is Kalaf Epalanga’s reflection on and celebration of the music of his homeland, the intertwining of cultural roots, and freedom and love.
Hours before performing at one of Europe’s most iconic music festivals, Kalaf is detained on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. Trapped in his precarity, his thoughts soon strum to the beat of kuduro, the blistering, techno-infused Angolan music which has taken him from Luanda to Kristiansund, Beirut to Lisbon. Shifting between his reflections while incarcerated, the stories of a friend at the heart of Lisbon’s dance scene and those of the immigration policeman who holds Kalaf’s fate in his hands, Whites Can Dance Too is at once an exhilarating novel and a transporting paean to cultural roots, to freedom and to love.
Kalaf Epalanga is an Angolan musician and writer. Best known internationally for fronting the Lisbon-based dance collective Buraka Som Sistema, he is a celebrated columnist in Angola and Portugal. Whites Can Dance Too is his acclaimed debut novel; it was first published in Portugal by Editorial Caminho (2017). Epalanga is currently based in Berlin.