London: Jonathan Cape, 1991
8vo, first edition, original green cloth lettered in gilt on spine, dust-jacket, minor crease to upper cover and minor staining to lower cover of dust-jacket
Azaro is an abiku, or spirit-child, living in an unknown city in Africa. Constantly harassed by his sibling spirits from another world, who want him to leave this mortal life and return to the world of spirits, Azaro stubbornly refuses to leave his family life.
Winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, 1993 Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore Literary Prize and the 1994 Premio Grinzane Cavour.
Annotated on 41 pages and illustrated with 22 abstract and semi-abstract drawings by the author of African ancestral spirits, as they appear in the narrative. Approximately 800 words.
Worked a lot on the opening paragraph: everything is in it: all came out of it; thinking of music; the opening notes; had to get the words absolutely right or the rest won’t follow… Odd that the beginning was written last, when I knew what the work was dreaming...
Worked a lot on the opening paragraph: everything is in it: all came out of it; thinking of music; the opening notes; had to get the words absolutely right or the rest won’t follow… Odd that the beginning was written last, when I knew what the work was dreaming...