Duppy Conqueror - Softcover

Dennis, Ferdinand

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006497845 ISBN 13: 9780006497844

Publisher: Flamingo, 1999

Synopsis

An epic tale of one man’s quest to fulfil a mission, which tells the story of this century from a particular Afro-Caribbean point of view.

Marshall Sargeant is born with the century in Paradise, on the island of Jamaica. As a young man, he is entrusted with a mystical quest, to overcome a curse that has been put on his family and he must do this by returning to Africa, whence they were brought as slaves.

In his strange and sometimes magical childhood, it seems inconceivable to Marshall that he should ever leave the island, but eventually he does, travelling first to wartime London, where he marries and mixes with a clubland crowd of musicians, and politicians, and then on to Africa and the struggle to escape from the colonial past.

Marshall’s life turns full circle in his epic mission to defeat the duppy, or ghost, that started him on his voyage. In the telling of Marshall’s story, Ferdinand Dennis has created a powerful narrative of the African experience, and in its breadth of vision and feeling, a novel that is truly universal.

About this title

About the Author

Ferdinand Dennis was born in Kingston, Jamaica and grew up in London. He has worked as an educational researcher, a lecturer in Nigeria, and a journalist and broadcaster. His first book, Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain, won the 1988 Martin Luther King Memorial Prize. His first novel, The Sleepless Summer, enjoys cult status in Britain’s black community. His short stories have appeared in various magazines and been broadcast on Radio 4. In 1991 he was made Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, London.

From the Back Cover

Marshall Sarjeant is born in Paradise, Jamaica. As a young man, he is entrusted with a mystical quest, to overcome a curse that has been put on his family. To do this he must return to Africa, whence they were brought as slaves.

Marshall's journey take him first to wartime London, where he marries and mixes with a clubland crowd of musicians and politicians, and then on to Africa and the struggle to escape form the colonial past.

Eventually he returns to Paradise to confront the Duppy, or ghost, that started him on his voyage. In the telling of Marshall's story, Ferdinand Dennis has created a powerful narrative of the African experience, and in its breadth of vision and feeling a novel that is truly universal.

"The skill the author brings to his portrayal of character is matched by the vivid realism with which he depicts place"
'The Times
'

"This novel may well prove a landmark in British fiction in capturing a breadth of diasporic experience and a moment in empire, its haunting mythologising of migration seeks to make of a bafflingly complex and often painful journey something luminous and redemptive."
'Guardian'

"It has a hurtling energy which raises it above Dennis's previous work . . .'Duppy Conqueror' brims with humour and low comedy."
'Times Literary Supplement'

Edition details

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006497845
• ISBN 13: 9780006497844
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320