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This one goes out to all the writers in the Year of our Lord 2020, as we all worry that our total inability to put a sentence together could turn into a lifetime of non-production: It’s never too late.
Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Nobel prize, will soon publish his first novel in 48 years. Bookcraft, Soyinka’s Nigerian publisher, will release the new title, Chronicles of The Happiest People on Earth, in November.
The author of more than two dozen plays, eight poetry collections, multiple essay collections, and a few short story collections, Soyinka also previously wrote two novels: The Interpreters (1965) and Season of Anomy (1973). Now, he builds on that work with a book that his publisher describes as “a narrative tour de force,” continuing: “This novel has got everything— friendship and betrayal; faith and treachery; hope and cynicism; murder; mayhem and no shortage of of drama, all set against the backdrop of contemporary Nigeria.”