Sozaboy

Book excerpt: Sozaboy powerfully describes the fate of a young, naive soldier thrown into the frontline of a civil war, from his first proud days of recruitment to the disillusionment and horrors that follow. Mene yearns for manhood. He dreams of gaining the glory that the ex-soldier in his village brags about, with his stories of hunting 'Hitla'. So when war breaks out and soldiers appear in Mene's isolated village, he sees his chance to finally wear a uniform. Too soon, however, Mene's innocence turns to terror. While witnessing the unfathomable, Mene must learn to evade the carnage of warfare if he wants to make it home alive... Writing in Nigerian Pidgin English, Ken Saro-Wiwa creates a unique window into the dark consequences of meaningless war. 'Haunting.' Guardian 'Sozaboy is not simply a great African novel, it is also a great anti-war novel, among the very best the twentieth century has produced.' William Boyd