Kojo Laing Book order

Critically acclaimed Ghanaian author Kojo Laing's second novel takes the reader on a fantastic journey filled with unforgettable characters and magical places.

Set against a backdrop of sharp wit and dark humor, the novel features an Anglican Bishop engaged in unconventional scientific endeavors with sharks, while an ecumenical Pope finds solace in boxing over the phone. The narrative explores the complexities of global inequality, as the Archbishop of Canterbury faces the challenges posed by genetic experiments. The author, a renowned Ghanaian writer and poet, weaves a story that reflects his African heritage through imaginative storytelling and thought-provoking themes.

Winner of the Valco Fund Literary Award for Fiction and the Ghana Book Award Search Sweet Country follows the lives of an eclectic, interconnected group of Ghanaians living in and around the sprawling, chaotic city of Accra in the mid-1970s. Bringing the city to life in dizzying, lyrical prose, Laing weaves a story filled with bizarre and often melancholy characters- an idealistic professor, a lovely young witch, a wide-eyed student, a corrupt politician and his hack sidekick, a business-savvy young woman, a healer, a bishop and a crazy man intent on founding his own village. Their collective narratives create a portrait of a country where colonialism is dying, but democracy remains elusive. Search Sweet Country is a timeless, near-forgotten gem by a virtuosic writer, as necessary now as when the book was first published. Like Joyce's Dublin and Dickens's London, Laing's Accra brims with both lush specificity and universal relevance.