I’m writing this entry immediately upon finishing the book before the raw experience of this reading slips away. Black Leopard is an epic story in a narrative style that takes some getting used to. It was a struggle at first to figure out who was the narrator, who was the Interrogator, and what was being hidden and what revealed. In his npr review Amal El-Mohtar noted the lengthy passages of dialogue “such that exchanges between characters feel like reading a play, or like archery — a twang, an arrow shot, and only the reply indicates whether or not it hit its target.” Particularly in the first few chapters, the dialogue is a struggle.

About half way into the novel the main character Tracker stops parrying with the mysterious Inquisitor and starts telling a more straightforward tale of his quest to rescue a Child. We learn this child is the King’s sister’s child and believed to be the rightful King. Tracker, the Red Wolf, has a supernatural power of smell. Upon gaining someone’s scent he can follow their path, know instantly where they are and if alive or dead. It is his nose which makes him the fulcrum of these epic adventures.

As I mentioned there is a lot going on in this novel, and even while settling into Tracker’s epic adventure, the fantastic images, folk tales, geography, and patois, were unfamiliar and disorienting. An anti-witch rescues “mingi” children from being murdered by their parents as bad omens or curses. Some became mingi because their top teeth grew in before their bottom. Others has more unusual qualities- a boy with no limbs who rolled around like a ball, a girl who dissolved into smoke then re-formed as solid, Giraffe boy who was all legs and a head. The mingi were protected in a tree village where trees had so densely intwined that branches formed steps, walls, and a roof for the children’s homes. This is one of the many fantastical places we encounter.

Did I mention the violence? This was another aspect of the narrative that took some getting used to. Unlike Game of Thrones, which revels in retellings of exquisite violent death, rape, and torture, in Black Leopard violence is a casual texture which touches all relations. It is ritualized in everyday life in the coming of age ceremonies of the Ku, it is almost cartoon-like in the choreographed fight scenes (what do you expect of a main character whose favorite weapon is an axe?), and it of course is part of all amorous relations (of the many varieties which appear in this tale). Several describe this book as an “African Game of Thrones” but I feel this is a cheap simplification of the project. Black Leopard is an experience of immersion in an utterly unfamiliar landscape, a struggle to re-orient, interpret, and engage. One I think is well worth the effort. Did I mention this is the first of a trilogy?

I give Black Leopard, Red Wolf 4.5👍🏿out of 5👍🏿.