"A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker."--Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A captivating, fictionalized retelling of African linguist and clergyman Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator.

"Run, Ajayi, run!"

When Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Osogun, thirteen-year-old Ajayi's life is split in two.

Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yoruba gods of forest and water, earth and sky.

After, there was capture, slavery--and eventually release--with Ajayi, left transfigured, unrecognizable, and now, inthe service of a new god, with a new name and a culture different from the one left far behind. Ajayi becomes Samuel Crowther--missionary, linguist, minister, and eventually abolitionist, driven to negotiate against his own people to end the evil trade in human beings which destroyed his family and transformed his own life.

Drawing on the prolific writings of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, novelist and filmmaker Biyi Bandele creates a many-voiced, kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary man. From the heart-stopping drama of Ajayi's last day of freedom to the farcical intrigue of the Osogun court; from a meeting with Queen Victoria to consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, Samuel Ajayi Crowther's journey, like all great odysseys, circles back to where he began. By turns witty, moving and revolutionary, Biyi Bandele's reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.

Cover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 (c) The artist.