Nobel Laureate, playwright, poet, author and eminent political rights advocate, Prof Wole Soyinka is publishing a new novel entitled “Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth”, roughly 48 years after he authored, “The Interpreters” (1965) and “ Season of Anomy” (1973).
In a post on his Facebook page, Lagos-based poet, writer and journalist, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, disclosed that the novel which is scheduled to be published by Bookcraft Publishing, an Ibadan based publishing firm, is projected to be out towards the tail end of the year.
Uzoatu quoted excerpts from the novel thus: “ A PARABLE FROM NATIONAL URBAN REALITY
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“Introduction
While the formal fact-finding panels pursue their assignment, and bewildered minds attempt to absorb the turn of events, reflect upon, and engage in informal caucuses on ‘what really happened’ during, and following the authentic #ENDSARS campaign, both in the Lekki arena and in horrifying dimensions across the nation, I believe that it will not be out of place to offer a parable extracted from a forthcoming work of fiction. A parable, yes, but an actuality that has become virtually institutionalized across the nation.
“It is offered as a public service before the events of the month of October 20|20 congeal in the minds of participants, onlookers and consumers of the Nigerian staple of the now mandatory UFN (unidentified Flying Narratives).
“The forthcoming novel from which it is extracted-CHRONICLES FROM THE LAND OF THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD (BookCraft)-will be published towards the end of the month of November, 2020. …” (Quotation closes).
Born on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta, in the then Western Nigeria, Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka popularly known as Wole Soyinka was educated both in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
In an unprecedented feat, Soyinka emerged as the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. In a long and very distinguished career, Soyinka has continued to evince the rich attributes of a global citizen.
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Since the tail end of the 1950s, when he authored his first most compelling play, A Dance of the Forests, which was not only a satirical narrative about political activities and the political elite in Nigeria but also spoke to a number of political issues besetting the political elite, he has remained a consistent face across the landscape, especially in the arts, political and human rights communities.
In 1960, Soyinka set-up a theater outfit called , The 1960 Masks, and subsequently Orisun Theatre Company, in 1964. Leveraging upon this, he produced his plays during that era. He has also been visiting professor to world-class universities across the world including Yale, Cambridge, etc.
This latest novel is coming roughly 48 years after he published his last two novels –The Interpreters” (1965) and “ Season of Anomy” (1973), respectively.
