Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude

by Khal Torabully
Sold out
Current price ₹375.00
Original price ₹499.00
Original price ₹499.00
Original price ₹499.00
(-25%)
₹375.00
Current price ₹375.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9780857427854
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Seagull Books
  • Publisher Imprint: Seagull Books
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 200
  • Original Price: INR 499.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 400 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): General

Cargo Hold of Stars is an ode to the forgotten voyage of a forgotten people. Khal Torabully gives voice to the millions of indentured men and women, mostly from India and China, who were brought to Mauritius between 1849 and 1923. Many were transported overseas to other European colonies. Kept in close quarters in the ship's cargo hold, many died. Most never returned home.

With Cargo Hold of Stars, Torabully introduces the concept of 'Coolitude' in a way that echoes Aimé Césaire's term 'Negritude, ' imbuing the term with dignity and pride, as well as a strong and resilient cultural identity and language. Stating that ordinary language was not equipped to bring to life the diverse voices of indenture, Torabully has developed a 'poetics of Coolitude' a new French, peppered with Mauritian Creole, wordplay, and neologisms--and always musical. The humor in these linguistic acrobatics serves to underscore the violence in which his poems are steeped.

Deftly translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson, Cargo Hold of Stars is the song of an uprooting, of the destruction and the reconstruction of the indentured laborer's identity. But it also celebrates setting down roots, as it conjures an ideal homeland of fraternity and reconciliation in which bodies, memories, stories, and languages mingle--a compelling odyssey that ultimately defines the essence of humankind.

Carlson, Nancy Naomi: - Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet, translator, and essayist. She is the author of An Infusion of Violets. Her translation of Khal Torabully's Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude, published by Seagull Books, won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize in 2022.

Torabully, Khal: - Khal Torabully is a poet, essayist, film director, and semiologist who has published over twenty-five books.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us