"...brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching ...written in English by a West African...Nothing is too prodigious or too trivial to put down in this tall, devilish story". (Dylan Thomas in the "Observer").

The palm-wine drinkard and his dead palm-wine tapster in the Dead's Town

Tutuola, Amos

Random House USA Inc

The witch-herbalist of the remote town

Literature & Fiction

Faber and Faber

Because they have had no children after four years of marriage, a brave African hunter leaves his wife in search of the Witch-Mother, who can provide a cure for infertility

The Witch Herbalist of the Remote Town

Faber&Faber

Collects both original stories and retellings of traditional folktales of one of Africa's greatest writers, drawing heavily on the Yoruba folk tradition of Nigeria

The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

Pauper, Brawler, and Slanderer are expelled from their Nigerian village and encounter unexpected adventures during their exile

Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer

This is the story of Ajaiyi, a man born into poverty who is determined to improve his situation. In the hope of finding the money he needs, he travels through unfamiliar lands filled with strange creatures. He meets the Spirit of Fire with its huge feathered head and flaming body, and receives assistance from a wizard and a unicorn. Yet, in the end, the answer to his woes is not far from home. Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1920. His first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, was acquired by T. S. Eliot and published by Faber in 1952.

Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty

Genre Fiction

Yoruba legend and culture were the source of much of Amos Tutuola's writing and the stories collected here are no exception. They feature characters from folklore, archetypal figures from Yoruba society, supernatural or magical happenings, acute human observation and often a moral point. Their very titles - from 'The Duckling Brothers and their Disobedient Sister' to 'Don't Pay Bad for Bad' - are evocative of a unique blend of tradition and imagination, which belongs to the same universal culture as Aesop and the Brothers Grimm.

Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories, The

Contemporary

Drawing on the Yoruba folk tradition, Amos Tutuola's tales combine the resonance of universal myth with reflections on a range of human vagaries. The leading characters of Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer are all forced to embark on journeys of no return, leading to incidents and adventures in classic Tutuola style. There is a ploughing competition for the hand of the beautiful Popondoro, and the reign of Pauper and Slanderer in the town of women is inevitably brief. This is Tutuola at his most vivid and funny, at his wisest and most imaginative.

Humor & Satire

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Amos Tutuola's second novel, was first published in 1954. It tells the tale of a small boy who wanders into the heart of a fantastical African forest, the dwelling place of innumerable wild, grotesque and terrifying beings. He is captured by ghosts, buried alive and wrapped up in spider webs, but after several years he marries and accepts his new existence. With the appearance of the television-handed ghostess, however, comes a possible route of escape. 'Tutuola ... has the immediate intuition of a creative artist working by spell and incantation.' V. S. Pritchett, New Statesman

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

After four years of marriage, the brave hunter of the Rocky Town and his beautiful wife, Lola, are still without a child. Equipped with juju, sharpened machete, bow and poisonous arrows, flints and thunderbolts, he sets off in search of the Witch-Herbalist's medicine. For six years he journeys, conquering or escaping from such haunting characters as the Abnormal Squatting Man of the Jungle and the Crazy Removable-Headed Wild Man. Finally he reaches the Remote Town of the Witch-Mother and is given medicine for his wife, but on the way home he makes a decision with interesting consequences.

The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tutuola, Amos. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tutuola, Amos

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tutuola, Amos. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The palm-wine drinkard and his dead palm-wine tapster in the Dead's Town

The witch-herbalist of the remote town

The Witch Herbalist of the Remote Town

The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories

Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer

Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty

Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories, The

Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town