Several Facebook posts shared dozens of times, claim that Patrice Nganang is among the best writers in the world in 2019. “A Cameroonian is in the top 10 best writers in the world in 2019: Patrice Nganang,” “One of the greatest writers in the world is called Patrice Nganang,” “The book of Nganang ‘la Saison des prunes’ is among the 10 best books of 2019 in the world. It is a unique ranking for a French-speaking Cameroonian writer,” we read on Facebook.

In fact, Patrice Nganang's novel, “la Saison des prunes” (2013), is on the list of the top 10 best-selling novels by “foreign” authors in the United States in 2019, according to the Library Journal, an American trade publication for librarians.

This publication classifies books in 17 categories on its website. “La Saison des prunes” is in the category "Best World Literature 2019". The English version of this novel is “When the Plums Are Ripe” and was translated from French in August 2019 by Amy Baram Reid, Professor of French Language and Literature at the New College of Florida (USA). However, this literary fiction does not appear in the “Best Literary Fiction” category of the Library Journal.

In addition, this categorization is limited to books published only on American soil. It is therefore not a world ranking as some people think.

As a reminder, Patrice Nganang is an American writer and university professor of Cameroonian origin, born in 1970 in Cameroon. His novel, "Temps de chien," received the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize in 2001 and the Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 2003.

P.N.N