Sacred River

“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.”

“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.” — African Studies Quarterly

“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 allusions make for a breathtaking and thought-provoking read.” — World Literature Today

“The promise and problems of postcolonial Africa mix with a rich tradition of mythology and magic in this
sequel 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

“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

“For more than [twenty] years we have waited for a rightful descendent of Syl Cheney-Coker’s magical and prizewinning novel The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar to come into our hands, and now we have it. In Sacred River, Cheney-Coker has surpassed himself, giving us a novel so large in scope and beautiful in its telling that we hate to have it end. It’s a work that from its prologue to its final breath reminds us that myth, legend, and storytelling are what Africa—old and new—is made of. This book is a triumph.”