Alain Mabanckou was born in Congo-Brazzaville in 1966 . He spent his childhood in the coastal city of Pointe-Noire .He received a scholarship at The Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville to go to France at the age of 22 . After receiving a post-graduate Diploma in Law from the Université Paris-Dauphine, he worked for about ten years for the group Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux.