An ode to the endless afternoons of childhood, when boredom can offer a portal into another world.
As a kid growing up in Burundi, Gaël was lucky enough to get bored. He didn’t have school in the afternoons, and his family didn’t have a computer or a television. So he had to learn to use his imagination to invent games and ways to pass the time: a mess of furniture in the living room became a jungle for his superheroes to brave; bananas leaves transformed into sailing ships. With a poetic text from acclaimed Rwandan-French author, hip-hop artist, and musician Gaël Faye and featuring lush illustrations by award-winning illustrator Hippolyte comes Endless Afternoons, a journey into the magical world of a boring summer afternoon.
Gaël Faye is an author, songwriter, and hip-hop artist, born in 1982 in Burundi to a French father and Rwandan mother. In 1995, after the outbreak of the civil war and the Rwandan genocide, his family moved to France. He released his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre, in 2013. His first novel, Small Country was a bestseller in France and has been awarded numerous literary prizes, among them the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, and was published in thirty countries worldwide. Faye now lives in Paris, France.
Author residence: Paris, France
Hippolyte is a French author and illustrator of graphic novels. He is one of the preeminent creators in the field of comics journalism. In 2014, he published the graphic novel La Fantaisie des Dieux (A Whim of the Gods), with a text from Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, which recounted the tragedy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Hippolyte now resides in Reúnion Island.
Irene Vázquez is a Black Mexican American poet, translator, and journalist born and raised on the Gulf Coast and now residing in Manhattan. Their translation of Aiko and the Planet of Dogs (Levine Querido 2024) was awarded the Prix Albertine Jeunesse. By day, Irene edits books about feisty 12-year olds at Levine Querido. When not in the world of books, Irene likes drinking coffee and watching the WNBA.