Playwright and author Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, takes aim at abuse of power in his sharply realized satirical novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. In the book, Soyinka’s first novel since 1973, the writer uses a murder mystery to ask hard questions of the colonial past and corrupt present of an imaginary, fantastical version of Nigeria. The text is a reminder that Soyinka’s legacy owes as much to his political activism as it does to his body of literature.
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