Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth: 'Soyinka's greatest novel'

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'Soyinka's greatest novel ... No one else can write such a book' - Ben Okri 'A lion of African literature' - Financial Times 'Chronicles is many things at once: a caustic political satire, a murder mystery, a conspiracy story and a deeply felt lament for the spirit of a nation' - Juan Gabriel Vasquez, New York Times A FINANCIAL TIMES AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR To Doctor Menka's horror, some cunning entrepreneur has decided to sell body parts from his hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Already at the end of his tether from the horrors he routinely sees in surgery, he shares this latest development with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne, who has never before met a puzzle he couldn't solve. Neither realise how close the enemy is, nor how powerful. Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is at once a savagely witty whodunit, a scathing indictment of Nigeria's political elite, and a provocative call to arms from one of the country's most relentless political activists and an international literary giant. 'A high-jinks state-of-the-nation novel' - Chibundu Onuzo 'Chronicles is a good model for what the political novel should be: fearless, disdaining formal constraints, sparing no one' - Guardian

Born in Nigeria in 1934, Wole Soyinka is an author, playwright, poet and political activist. His prolific body of work includes debut novel The Interpreters and play Death and the King's Horseman. Soyinka fought in the Nigerian war of independence and has subsequently been one of greatest critics of the Nigerian government. Twice jailed, he wrote part of his memoir on toilet paper in solitary confinement. A staunch critic of corrupt, authoritarian regimes everywhere, Soyinka destroyed his Green Card when Trump was elected in 2016. He is Africa's first Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Is this a good place to confess my crush, an overly bashful crush, on this politically courageous literary stylist ... I look to Soyinka's life, not so much the choices he has made but the courage it took to make them, as a source of light * Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sunday Times * A vivid and wild romp ... A vast danse macabre. No one else can write such a book ... Chronicles is Soyinka's greatest novel ... It ought to be widely read * Ben Okri, Observer * A lion of African literature ... A brutally satirical look at power and corruption in Nigeria, told in the form of a whodunnit * Financial Times * A Nigerian icon ... A high-jinks state-of-the-nation novel * Chibundu Onuzo, Guardian * A black-humoured satire of contemporary Nigeria * Telegraph * Chronicles is a good model for what the political novel should be: fearless, disdaining formal constraints, sparing no one ... A triumph * Guardian * This is an extraordinary novel that is both in and of Nigeria. It contains elements of Yoruba culture and, in the middle of it all, is a gourd full of satire, humor and pathos. It is a chronicle of human folly among the happiest people on earth. The writing alone is a wonder and a fitting coda for the career of this great writer * New York Journal of Books * Inspiring and original ... Soyinka's analysis of the 20th century problem of memory and forgiveness in the African world is both timely and important. Soyinka's analysis of the problem is an initial volley in what will surely become a 21st century debate * New York Times Book Review * With caustic wit, Soyinka's carnivalesque depictions of venality ferret out hypocrisy from behind its elaborate guises and condemn crimes that challenge "the collective notion of soul". * New Yorker * He employs characteristically flamboyant language in a devastatingly detailed examination of Nigerian society * TLS * Chronicles is many things at once: a caustic political satire, a murder mystery, a conspiracy story and a deeply felt lament for the spirit of a nation ... For all its sarcastic undertones, for all its puns and plays on names, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is a pessimistic novel, the work of a man with no illusions * Juan Gabriel Vasquez, New York TImes * Wole Soyinka is a legendary writer ... He has inspired generations of writers worldwide ... Wole draws on his lifetime steeped in resistance for his new novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. The title is ironic. It's a caustic, satirical takedown of corruption in a country not unlike his native Nigeria * Kirsty Wark, Newsnight * Swaggering and scabrous, at once a verbal spree and a fierce assault on totalitarianism * Observer * A whodunnit that turns into a searing indictment of modern Nigeria * i paper * A caustic satire * Daily Mail * A savagely witty whodunit, a scathing indictment of Nigeria's political elite and a provocative call to arms from one of the country's most relentless political activists and an international literary giant * The Voice * Soyinka ... Is the tour guide for the last sixty years of Nigerian history and there is so much to see ... bursting with humour and irony * Litro * Back with a roar ... Kafkaesque ... A shocking, scathing and gripping look at society and human behaviour all in one * Shiny New Books * A juggernaut of a novel ... Bold and chaotic, it is somehow of the moment ... This is literature of the dynamic kind, fed not so much by carefully honed craft as by a profound, urgent energy: both cry for help and call to arms; a response, a lament, a reckoning * Lunate.co.uk * PRAISE FOR WOLE SOYINKA: You don't see things the same when you encounter a voice like that. * Toni Morrison * He is one of the best there is today, a poet and thinker who knows both how the world actually works and how the world should work. * Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie * Wole Soyinka is a giant of modern literature. * Robert McFarlane * To have contained in the body of his work the fullness of individual vision, the potency of myth, the corruptions of power, and the misery of the oppressed, is a rare feat. * Ben Okri *