The third of the Nobel Prize-winner's classic works of autobiographyAn uneasy evening in the Kray twins' pub in London's East End with world-famous theatre director Joan Littlewood; a lightning bolt that strikes the light switch beside his desk at school, a confrontation in Cairo Airport's quarantine compound which nearly ends in his being beaten to death - many such bizarre encounters form a regular pattern for Maren, Wole Soyinka's alter ego in this account of his boyhood and young manhood.
Ibadan occupies a special place in the story. This is where the schoolboy finally breaks free from the liberal Christianity of his parental home, and where he later begins his running battle with corrupt authroity, contesting the infamy of power, first with his dramatic satires and then through direct action, eventually holding up a radio station at gunpoint.
'One of the liveliest, most exciting writers in the world today' (New York Times)
'Wole Soyinka's Nobel Prize for Literature is a triumphant affirmation of the universality of this novelist, poet, film-maker and political activist' (Guardian)