So Long a Letter

So Long a Letter is a short novel – under 100 pages – taking the form of a letter from protagonist Ramatoulaye to her best friend since childhood, Aissatou. Bâ’s narrator looks back at her life from the point of view of a crisis moment in middle age, as she examines the choices she has made so far, and considers her future. Lyrical yet wry, gently regretful yet full of strength and conviction, Ramatoulaye’s voice is that of a very particular woman in a specific time and place yet it feels, in many ways, universal. So Long a Letter was the first winner (in 1980) of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing, is a foundational text for women’s writing in Francophone Africa, and was translated into English in 1981.