The novel is centred on a man simply known as the Tracker who has a nose for scents, so profoundly in fact that once he grabs a hold of a smell he is able to follow that person or being anywhere, until they either die or disappear of their own or others’ accord.Ī refugee from a violent and broken family which gives a whole new meaning to dysfunctional, he must survive entirely on his own resources, which is where his supreme tracking ability and lack of squeamishness when it comes to blood, guts, death and violence comes into very handy play. 41)īlack Leopard, Red Wolf bounds between the world as think we know it with rules and regulations, laws and obligations and another world entirely which exists alongside it and which, while observing some of its morality and ethics, is unbound in ways that horrify, thrill, excite and dismay, promising a ride through dimensions and shades of “human” behaviour that you won’t soon forget. On him I smelled the leaves he ran through and the fresh wet of dew, the dead scent of the girl and the fresh musk of the grave dirt under his fingernails. Now he walked behind us, sometimes so far back that I thought he went off on his own, sometimes so close I could feel him sniff me. “We waited until the Leopard came back, in the shape of a man with the frown gone from his face. Set on that most uncertain of bases, the novel is a rip-roaring ride that takes you to the depths of the underworld, cities of majesty and wonder and darkest intent and rampant hypocrisy and into the twisted minds and hearts of women and men, both mortal and not, human and far beyond, for an exploration of what makes people of all stripes and reality tick.īe warned – if you’re expecting some sort of sanitised, Disney-fied romp through African mythology you’ll be greatly shocked and wholly disappointed if, however, you are willing to deep dive into the very depths of the darkness and goodness that infuses our world, and take nothing for granted and drop all your expectations of how well-behaved a fantasy novel should be, you will be delighted and thrilled beyond measure. It can also be thrillingly dangerous and intensely emotionally resonant in the most visceral and cuttingly real of ways as Marlon James makes vibrantly and chillingly clear in Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a book which brings together African mythology and history with the innermost workings of the author’s fecund and sometimes terrifyingly rich imagination.Īs fantasy novels, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a massive and welcome departure from the usual Euro-centric fantasy tales, a novel which never once pretends that happy endings are a foregone conclusion and that right will always triumph over wrong. If you exercise it properly, the imagination is a vast and wondrous place. (cover image courtesy Penguin Books Australia)

Black leopard red wolf review