 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Amos Tutuola |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber (UK) Grove Press (US) |
Publication date | 1952 (UK) 1953 (US) |
| Publication place | Nigeria |
| Pages | 125 |
| ISBN | 0-571-04996-6 |
| Followed by | My Life in the Bush of Ghosts |
The Palm-Wine Drinkard (subtitled "and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town") is a novel published in 1952 by the Nigerian author Amos Tutuola. The first African novel published in English outside of Africa, this quest tale based on Yoruba folktales is written in a modified English or Pidgin English. In it, a man follows his brewer into the land of the dead, encountering many spirits and adventures. The novel has always been controversial, inspiring both admiration and contempt among Western and Nigerian critics, but has emerged as one of the most important texts in the African literary canon, translated into more than a dozen languages.