Tail of the Blue Bird [Paperback]

Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2011

A woman spots a stunning blue-headed bird at the edge of a Ghanaian village follows it.

Sonokrom is a place that has not changed for hundreds of years; the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and commune with the spirits of their ancestors. However, the woman's intrusion and ensuing events lead to an invasion from Accra, the capital city, spearheaded by Kayo; a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries.

But as events in the village become more and more incomprehensible, Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba are drawn into a world where storytelling is more powerful than any scientific explanation.

Tail of the Blue Bird is a poetic fable, at once unsettling and heart-warmingly funny, that exemplifies the futility of trying to categorise Africa, reminding us that the boundaries of truth have never been clear cut.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the beginning of award-winning Ghanaian writer Parkes's debut novel, life in the quiet village of Sonokrom is disrupted by a minister's girlfriend in a short skirt "whose eyes would not lie still." Arriving by car, she follows a stench-and a hunch-into the abandoned hut of a man named Kofi Atta, and the narrator of these early pages, hunter Opanyin Poku, follows. So many maggots swarm the remains; "the hut was filled with their buzzing." The case draws the attention of a power-hungry inspector who forces Kayo, a talented young forensic pathologist, into service, pairing him with the able Constable Garba. Kayo is able to gain the confidence of a local medicine man so that he can collect research samples while still respecting traditions. He's alarmed by oddities related to the case, like a blue bird feather that appears when the remains are burned. But the inspector isn't interested in oddities; he wants a "CSI-style report." A beguiling exploration of the power of storytelling-ancient stories and humble, modern and official. "On this earth," Kayo learns, "we have to choose the story we tell, because it affects...how we live."
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From Booklist

Set in a contemporary Ghanaian village, this murder mystery blends CSI with magic realism. Forensic scientist Kayo was trained in Britain (he watches CSI), so when he is sent from his Accra city desk to investigate the bloody remains found in a rural hut, he travels with his laptop at the ready. The question is not only whodunit but also what is it (the remains, that is)? Could it be a human placenta? Then who and where is the mother? Kayo’s boss and the blatantly corrupt officials in the district are far less concerned with what happened than with how they can profit from it, but Kayo and his sidekick soldier on, in the process getting themselves caught up in the local feuds and goings-on. The novel, which was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize, is not easy reading, especially the occasional parts told in pidgin dialect, but the story and atmosphere prove quite engaging. Working in a remote village, rooted in the scary forest, Kayo must look beyond the easy answers that come at the touch of a keyboard and search for absolute truths. --Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: flipped eye publishing (January 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981858430
• ISBN-13: 978-0981858432
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,456,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a Ghanaian writer and Senior Editor at flipped eye publishing. A 2007 recipient of Ghana's national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy, he is a former International Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton and writer-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles. In 2009, his short story, 'Socks Ball', was highly commended in the Caine Prize for African Writing, and his novel 'Tail of the Blue Bird' (due for release in the US in winter 2010) was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Nii Ayikwei writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo and spends most of his time in Ghana and the United Kingdom with regular visits to the United States for readings.