My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (novel)
My
Life in the Bush of Ghosts
is a novel by Nigerian
writer Amos Tutuola,
published in 1954. It is presented as a collection of related - but not always
sequential - narratives.
The
stories recount the fate of a small West African boy. After he and his elder
brother are abandoned by his family, they flee as armed slave traders approach
their village. On becoming separated from his brother, who has likely been
captured by the slave traders, he unwittingly enters the bush, or wilderness.
He is too young and inexperienced to know, as every hunter and traveler does,
that ghosts or spirits live there, and mortals risk great peril by entering the
area.
The
book is written in English from the viewpoint of the main character, the young
boy, and describes his surreal experiences with strange beings in a strange
place. Tutuola's command of the language enabled him to modify his writing
style to describe the external world and events in an authentic voice of youth
and naivety.
The
story is not one unbroken narrative, as other stories also appear out of
sequence.
Many
of the stories have the qualities of children's tales but with nightmarish or
gruesome elements, similar to Grimm's Fairy Tales.
My
Life in the Bush of Ghosts, like his
earlier The Palm-Wine Drinkard, is heavily metaphorical and autobiographical.
Tributes
The title of the 1981 album My
Life in the Bush of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno was taken from this novel.
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