Ville Cruelle

Paris: Présence Africaine, [1971]. 12mo (17.25cm.); original yellow and red pictorial card wrappers; 223pp. Fine. Cameroonian author's first novel, originally published pseudonymously in 1954. Bildungsroman set in pre-independent Cameroon, originally published as a means of communicating the author's ideas regarding the colonial presence in Africa with minimal consideration to style. As a result, Awala changed his pseudonym to Mongo Beti for his subsequent published works.