The Palm-Wine Drinkard
core novel 1952 The Palm-Wine Drinkard
Record
| First published | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.71 (4,021 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 125 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780571049967 |
Synopsis
The Palm-Wine Drinkard, published by Amos Tutuola in 1952, follows a Nigerian man whose entire life is organized around drinking palm wine, so devoted to it that he keeps a personal tapster on hand solely to keep him supplied. When his devoted tapster falls to his death from a palm tree, the narrator finds himself unable to secure a satisfactory replacement anywhere in the world of the living, and no ordinary solution will do. Desperate and unwilling to accept a life without his supply, he sets out on an extraordinary journey into Deads' Town, the land of the dead, determined to bring his tapster back among the living. His travels there rely on cunning, resourcefulness, and the aid of supernatural beings he encounters along the way, in a narrative drawing heavily on Yoruba oral folklore traditions.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Palm-Wine Drinkard
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Amos Tutuola
Notes
- Full original title: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town. Published in the UK by Faber and Faber in 1952 and in the US by Grove Press in 1953; written in an idiosyncratic Nigerian-English idiom drawing directly on Yoruba oral folklore.
Sources
← The Palm-Wine Drinkard dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.