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Sacred River: A Novel (Modern African Writing Series) by [Syl Cheney-Coker]

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Syl Cheney-Coker

Sacred River: A Novel (Modern African Writing Series) Kindle Edition

by Syl Cheney-Coker (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.7 3 ratings

Part of: Modern African Writing Series (18 books)

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The reincarnation of a legendary nineteenth-century Caribbean emperor as a contemporary African leader is at the heart of this novel. Sacred River deals with the extraordinary lives, hopes, powerful myths, stories, and tragedies of the people of a modern West African nation. It is also the compelling love story of an idealistic philosophy professor and an ex-courtesan of incomparable beauty. Two hundred years after his death, the great Haitian emperor Henri Christophe miraculously appears in a dream to Tankor Satani, president of the fictional West African country of Kissi, with instructions for Tankor to continue Henri Christophe’s rule, which had been interrupted by “that damned Napoleon.”

Ambitious in scope, Sacred River is a diaspora-inspired novel, in which Cheney-Coker has tackled the major themes of politics, social strife, crime and punishment, and human frailty and redemption in Malagueta, the fictional, magical town and its surroundings first created by the author in The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, for which he was awarded the coveted Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Sacred River is equally about love and politics, and marks the return to fiction of one of Africa’s major writers.

Editorial Reviews

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“Sacred River is a novel of epic proportions powered by a microscopic gaze and magisterial sweep. Told with pain and passion, withering wit and satiric humor, this is a tale of these and other times: thronged, sensuous, cerebral, and visionary in the most unpredictable ways. There is magic in the telling, a magic wrought from the myths and legends of the African world, and facts which belie the strangest fiction. Sacred River reads like a magnificent poem with multiple chapters. A truly virtuoso achievement.”—Niyi Osundare, award-winning poet and distinguished professor of English, University of New Orleans

“The novel fits easily into the post-independence disillusionment novel canon along with Achebe’s A Man of the People, Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, and wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow.

“Syl Cheney-Coker’s beautifully written book explores life in a fictional West African country in all its pain, spirituality, and glory. The poetic lilt of the sentences combined with intertwining stories of suffering, hope, and historical all

“The promise and problems of postcolonial Africa mix with a rich tradition of mythology and magic in thissequel to The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990)…. Readers of this work, part of the publisher’s Modern African Writing series, will be reminded of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie.” —Booklist

“This innovative epic by Sierra Leone native Cheney-Coker (The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar) is firmly set in West Africa and features magical realism grounded in native myth…. Cheney-Coker’s sweeping tale climaxes with the “sacred river,” the spiritual center of the story, offering Yeama its healing and rejuvenating powers.” —Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The promise and problems of postcolonial Africa mix with a rich tradition of mythology and magic in this sequel to The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990). Since the start of the diamond trade, Malagueta, the capital of a small, fictional country on Africa’s west coast, has been mired in corruption. The dictatorial president, Tankor Satani, sees himself as the reincarnation of nineteenth-century Haitian king Henri Christophe. In a bid for immortality, he empties the treasury to build a colossal palace called Xanadu. Another, more modest dwelling is built along the river by Habiba Mouskuda, using the proceeds from her disreputable past. She creates a refuge there for herself and her lover, Theodore Iskander, a philosopher. Around these two points pivots a large, multicultural cast of politicians, soldiers, speculators, academics, wives and mistresses, and necromancers. Malagueta is plunged into a prolonged and especially brutal war after Satani dies, but the novel closes on a note of redemption. Readers of this work, part of the publisher’s Modern African Writing series, will be reminded of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie. --Mary Ellen Quinn --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00IE39056
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ohio University Press; Reprint edition (March 11, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 11, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1362 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 445 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0821420569

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3.7 3 ratings

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