The Famished Road
Azaro is an abiku, a spirit-child born to die and be born again, who breaks the pact he made with his companions in the other place and stays; the ones he left keep coming to the compound to fetch him back. His father loads cement by day and fights under the name Black Tyger at night, his mother hawks in the market, and Madame Koto's bar fills with politicians handing out rice before an election in the last colonial years. Given the Booker in 1991 to an author of thirty-two, it brought the Yoruba spirit-child into the English novel and is still the standard reference for what that can be made to do.
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Lineage
- influenced by ↑ The Palm-Wine Drinkard
- ↓ Songs of Enchantment
Attributes
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Symbol / motif
Conflict
Mode / tone
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 71% · 20 shared
- 43% · 13 shared
- 41% · 13 shared
- 40% · 9 shared
- 39% · 11 shared
- 39% · 11 shared