GauZ'

GauZ' is the author name of Armand Patrick Gbaka-Brédé. He was born in 1971 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. GauZ' is a photographer, screenwriter, editor of a satirical Ivorian economic newspaper, and the author of four books, one of which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. He currently lives in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast.

Biography
GauZ' was born in 1971 in Abidjan. His father was a teacher and a socialist deputy, and his mother was a nurse and communist. As a child he stayed with family when his parents went to Paris to study.

When he was 28, he arrived in France with a master's degree in biochemistry and a scholarship to do another master's degree in biochemistry. He worked for two years as a security guard. He has two children, who still live in Paris.

After publishing the novel Debout-Payé -- published in 2014 and shortlisted, as Standing Heavy in English, for the International Booker Prize in 2023 -- he returned to Ivory Coast. He recently created Srèlè, the Ivorian publishing house.

Works

 * Debout-Payé, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2014. Translated by Frank Wynne as Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press, 2022; Biblioasis, International Translation Series, 2023).
 * Après l'Océan movie screenplay, Le Nouvel Attila
 * Camarade Papa, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2018. The book is about "Ivory Coast, Marxism Leninism, and colonization."
 * Black Manoo, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2020.
 * Cocoaïans (Naissance d’une nation chocolat), L’Arche, 2022

Awards

 * Debout-Payé, 2014 Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph; shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize
 * Camarade Papa (2018), Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire