The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
This cover makes my poor sleep deprived eyes twitch I already had a Nigerian book in my to read pile (which will come next) but couldn't help picking this one up as well when I saw it was described by Dylan Thomas as 'brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching'. If it's good enough for Thomas, it's good enough for me (Under Milk Wood is in my opinion the best writing ever committed to paper). Amos Tutuola was born in rural western Nigeria in 1920. Though his family were locally important (his grandfather was an Odafin, or law giver, and a patriarch of the Odegbami clan) they were poor. Amos became a servant to a richer man at the age of 7 and sent to the local Salvation Army School in lieu of payment. Later he attended the Anglican Central School, but his education was cut short when he was 12, and his father died. Up to this point Amos had not had a surname, but now took his father's name Tutuola for this purpose. He became a blacksmith for the Royal Airforce Force...
