Sacred River: A Novel

by Syl Cheney-Coker

Overview

The reincarnation of a legendary nineteenth-century Caribbean emperor as a contemporary African leader is at the heart of this novel. Sacred River deals with the extraordinary lives, hopes, powerful myths, stories, and tragedies of the people of a modern West African nation. It is also the compelling love story of an idealistic philosophy professor and an ex-courtesan of incomparable beauty. Two hundred years after his death, the great Haitian emperor Henri Christophe miraculously appears in a dream to Tankor Satani, president of the fictional West African country of Kissi, with instructions for Tankor to continue Henri Christophe’s rule, which had been interrupted by “that damned Napoleon.” Ambitious in scope, Sacred River is a diaspora-inspired novel, in which Cheney-Coker has tackled the major themes of politics, social strife, crime and punishment, and human frailty and redemption in Malagueta, the fictional, magical town and its surroundings first created by the author in The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, for which he was awarded the coveted Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Sacred River is equally about love and politics, and marks the return to fiction of one of Africa’s major writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821444658
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	03/11/2013
Series:	Modern African Writing Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	430
File size:	451 KB

About the Author

Syl Cheney-Coker was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and is the author of five volumes of poetry, a collection of essays, and the novel The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa) and was named one of the “20th century’s 100 best Africa books.”

Table of Contents

Author’s Note Prologue Book I: The Years of the Barracudas 1. The Metamorphosis of King Henri Christophe 2. Group Portrait of a Woman 3. Tankor Satani Has Another Unexpected Visitor 4. A Fishbone-Choking Death 5. A Crepuscular Time for Tankor Satani’s Presidency 6. An Albino and Dancing to the Moon 7. Healing on the Beach 8. The Unbearable Loneliness of Being Chief Justice 9. The River Between 10. The Last Visit of General Augustus Kotay 11. The Fallen Angel 12. The Mermaid’s Comb 13. A Ballad for Her Dead Lovers 14. The Vultures of the Angels 15. Camwood on the Leaves 16. The Sorcerer’s Hieroglyph 17. Hawanatu Gomba’s Imaginary Lover 18. Madmen and Specialists 19. Occasion to Dance 20. First Canto of the Mermaid 21. An Empty House 22. The Not-So-Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 23. The Times They Were Living In 24. Between Two Women 25. Such a Long Journey 26. Arcadian Eunuchs and Willful French Nymphs 27. Finally, a Child 28. The Stallion of an Old Man’s Twilight Book II: Passion and Immortality 29. The Gadflies 30. A Pasiphae, So Late in His Life 31. Flames on the Streets 32. When the Banana Plant Is about to Die It Produces New Suckers 33. Rumors of a Magic Plane 34. A Man of the People 35. Finally, the River 36. A Savant Goes to the Xanadu 37. A Rooster for the River Man 38. Jewel of a Long Summer 39. Tankor Satani Meets Gilchrist Obango 40. All the Pretenders 41. Sorcerers and Poets 42. Second Canto of the Mermaid 43. A Little Matter of Conscience 44. An Amazing Gift! 45. What Is Left of This Life after Those Sweet Days? Book III: Paradise, Bad News, the Houris, and a Turquoise Ocean 46. This Island Now 47. Of Mice and Men 48. Three Million Dollars Lost, Just Like That 49. The Professor of Desire 50. Enigma of a Name 51. The Splendid Mystique of Nine Dead Men 52. Last Canto of the Mermaid Book IV: La Dolce Vita 53. An Unloved Polyp 54. After the Remains of His Days 55. A Preemptive Move 56. Show Us Your Penny, General 57. A Woman of Esteem 58. The Same Potter’s Wheel 59. In Praise of Virility 60. The Children of Sisyphus 61. La Dolce Vita 62. The Serpent’s Tail 63. Of Heroes and Demons 64. Love and the French Lessons Book V: War and Those Diamonds 65. A Different Kind of Coral 66. The Long March 67. Naked Woman on a Fabulous Horse 68. Bless You, Granddaughter 69. War and Poetry 70. The Coming of Lucifer 71. A Simple Wedding 72. The Last Song of Lieutenant Albert Samura 73. Diamonds Are Not So Beautiful 74. Going Home to the Angels 75. The Beasts of No Nation 76. The Return of the Native 77. The Last Song for Mabinty Koumba 78. The Sweet Reward of Integrity Epilogue Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

"Syl Cheney-Coker's beautifully written book explores life in a fictional West African country in all its pain, spirituality, and glory. The poetic lilt of the sentences combined with intertwining stories of suffering, hope, and historical all

"The novel fits easily into the post-independence disillusionment novel canon along with Achebe's A Man of the People, Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, and wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow.

"The promise and problems of postcolonial Africa mix with a rich tradition of mythology and magic in thissequel to The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990).... Readers of this work, part of the publisher's Modern African Writing series, will be reminded of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie." --Booklist

"Sacred River is a novel of epic proportions powered by a microscopic gaze and magisterial sweep. Told with pain and passion, withering wit and satiric humor, this is a tale of these and other times: thronged, sensuous, cerebral, and visionary in the most unpredictable ways. There is magic in the telling, a magic wrought from the myths and legends of the African world, and facts which belie the strangest fiction. Sacred River reads like a magnificent poem with multiple chapters. A truly virtuoso achievement."--Niyi Osundare, award-winning poet and distinguished professor of English, University of New Orleans

"This innovative epic by Sierra Leone native Cheney-Coker (The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar) is firmly set in West Africa and features magical realism grounded in native myth.... Cheney-Coker's sweeping tale climaxes with the "sacred river," the spiritual center of the story, offering Yeama its healing and rejuvenating powers." --Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher