The Palm-Wine Drinkard

Book cover of The Palm-Wine Drinkard

Book description

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…

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Mythology

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Palm-Wine Drinkard as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Chikodili Emelumadu

Author

Weird AF!

I haven't read it in twenty years, having been introduced to Tutuola's work as part of my undergrad degree. It's a book full of ghosts and the sort of mind that perceives and interacts with them. It basically epitomises the saying, 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,' but is the palm-wine drinkard a fool, brave, desperate, or just very, very drunk when he wanders off on his quest through the spirit world? Or is he all of the above?

Read it and find out.

From Chikodili's list on proving Nigerians are secret weirdos.

Blair Austin

Author

A good friend of mine with whom I’ve lost contact recommended this book.

The narrator is on a quest to find his palm-wine tapster who is dead in Deads' Town so that the tapster can return and keep tapping the trees that produce palm-wine (a sap that ferments to 4 percent alcohol in two hours).

There are endless quests within quests, rich and mysterious, in landscapes half dream, half real; they stay in the mind: an utterly unique vision, the sound of one voice creating a hybrid world.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find my friend and regain contact,…

From Blair's list on opening strange worlds.