Waiting For The Wild Beasts To Vote

Product Description

Ahmadou Kourouma's remarkable novel is narrated by Bingo, a West African sora
- storyteller & king's fool. Over the course of five nights he tells the life story of Koyaga, President & Dictator of the Gulf Coast. Orphaned at the age of seven, Koyaga grows up to be a terrible hunter; he fights mythical beasts, & is a shape-shifter, capable of changing himself into beasts & birds. He fights in the French colonial armies, in Vietnam & Algeria, but on his return he mounts a coup & becomes ruler & dictator of the Gulf Coast. For thirty years he runs a corrupt but 'clean' state, surviving repeated assassination attempts & gaining support & investment from abroad. But when the ' First World' decide they no longer want to support dictatorships & call for democracy, he needs another ruse to maintain himself in power-Part magic, part history, part savage satire, Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote is nothing less than a history of post-colonial Africa itself.--'A tour de force
- original, irreverent, brutal, funny, poetic
- in which history & myth are brilliantly evoked' Independent --'A brilliant, often hilarious, political satire' Daily Telegraph--'A brutal & fascinating work' The Times--'A thoroughgoing indictment of the African way of leadership' Guardian--' Witty & wholly authentic chronicle of black African atrocity-Spellbinding' Spectator--' At times riotously funny-Abrupt but frequently wonderful use of language' Times Literary Supplement