The Palm-Wine Drinkard

This classic novel tells the phantasmagorical story of an alcoholic man and his search for his dead palm-wine tapster. As he travels through the land of the dead, he encounters a host of supernatural and often terrifying beings - among them the complete gentleman who returns his body parts to their owners and the insatiable hungry-creature. Mixing Yoruba folktales with what T. S. Eliot described as a 'creepy crawly imagination', The Palm-Wine Drinkard is regarded as the seminal work of African literature. 'Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching.' Dylan Thomas, Observer 'Tutuola's art conceals - or rather clothes - his purpose, as all good art must do.' Chinua Achebe

This classic novel tells the phantasmagorical story of an alcoholic man and his search for his dead palm-wine tapster. As he travels through the land of the dead, he encounters a host of supernatural and often terrifying beings - among them the complete gentleman who returns his body parts to their owners and the insatiable hungry-creature. Mixing Yoruba folktales with what T. S. Eliot described as a 'creepy crawly imagination', The Palm-Wine Drinkard is regarded as the seminal work of African literature. 'Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching.' Dylan Thomas, Observer 'Tutuola's art conceals - or rather clothes - his purpose, as all good art must do.' Chinua Achebe

Amos Tutuola's masterful first novel of a nightmarish quest into the land of the dead, now available in a standalone volume with an introduction by Wole Soyinka Widely considered to be his masterpiece, Amos Tutuola's debut novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard was first published in 1952. Named one of TIME 's "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" and introduced here by Wole Soyinka, the novel tells the phantasmagorical story of a wealthy alcoholic who drinks 225 kegs of palm wine a day. When the man's personal tapster dies and leaves him without any remaining supply of alcohol, the man desperately follows the tapster into the nightmarish Dead's Town. Drawing on Yoruba folklore and narrated with a unique voice that mixes West African oral traditions with the Colonial British English that Tutuola learned at school, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is a seminal work of African literature from one of Nigeria's most influential writers and an important part of the global literary canon.

Amos Tutuola's masterful first novel of a nightmarish quest into the land of the dead, now available in a standalone volume with an introduction by Wole Soyinka Widely considered to be his masterpiece, Amos Tutuola's debut novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard was first published in 1952. Named one of TIME 's "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" and introduced here by Wole Soyinka, the novel tells the phantasmagorical story of a wealthy alcoholic who drinks 225 kegs of palm wine a day. When the man's personal tapster dies and leaves him without any remaining supply of alcohol, the man desperately follows the tapster into the nightmarish Dead's Town. Drawing on Yoruba folklore and narrated with a unique voice that mixes West African oral traditions with the Colonial British English that Tutuola learned at school, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is a seminal work of African literature from one of Nigeria's most influential writers and an important part of the global literary canon.