The Forest of a Thousand Daemons

'Some of the most brilliant fiction in Yoruba writing' WOLE SOYINKA, Nobel Prize-winning author of LAND OF THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH

'A classic of the African imagination' BEN OKRI, Booker Prize-winning author of THE FAMISHED ROAD

Published in Nigeria in 1939, The Forest of a Thousand Daemons is the first novel be written in Yoruba. The narrative unfolds in a landscape where, true to Yoruba cosmology, human, natural and supernatural beings are compellingly and wonderfully alive at once: a world of warriors, sages and kings; magical trees and snake people; spirits, Ghommids and bog-trolls. Here are the adventures of Akara-ogun — son of a brave warrior and wicked witch — as he journeys into the forest, encountering and dealing with all-too-real unforeseen forces, engaging in dynamic spiritual and moral relationships with personifications of his fate, projections of the terrors that haunt man.

'A very important book' MARLON JAMES, Booker Prize-winning author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS