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 a seminal work of African literature. 'Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching... Nothing is too prodigious or too trivial to put down in this tall, devilish story.' Dylan Thomas, Observer 'Tutuola's art conceals - or rather clothes - his purpose, as all good art must do.' Chinua Achebe