Palm-Wine Drinkard - Tutuola, Amos

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 the seminal work of African literature.''Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching.'' Dylan Thomas, Observer''Tutuola''s art conceals - or rather clothes - his purpose, as all good art must do.'' Chinua Achebe