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Palace of the Peacock

By: Wilson Harris, Jamaica Kincaid - introduction
Narrated by: Don Warrington
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Publisher's Summary

A radical landmark in Caribbean literature, reissued with a new foreword by Jamaica Kincaid to mark Wilson Harris' centenary: this visionary masterpiece tracing the dreamlike voyage of a riverboat crew through the jungle defies definition 60 years on.

I dreamt I awoke with one dead seeing eye and one living closed eye....

A crew of men are embarking on a voyage up a turbulent river through the rainforests of Guyana. Donne, their wild, domineering leader, is obsessed with hunting for a mysterious woman and exploiting Indigenous people as plantation labour. But their expedition is plagued by tragedies, haunted by drowned ghosts: spectres of the crew themselves, inhabiting a blurred shadowland between life and death. As their journey into the interior—their own hearts of darkness—deepens, it assumes a spiritual dimension, guiding them towards a new destination: the Palace of the Peacock....

A modernist fever dream, hallucinatory prose poem, modern myth, elegy to victims of colonial conquest: Wilson Harris' visionary masterpiece has defied definition for over 60 years and is reissued for a new generation of listeners.

©2021 Jamaica Kincaid (P)2022 Faber Audio

Critic Reviews

"An exhilarating experience.... Makes visions real and reality visions.... Genius." (Jamaica Kincaid)

"The Guyanese William Blake. [Such] poetic intensity." (Angela Carter)

"Staggering.... Brilliant and terrifying." (The Times)

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.