Paperback. Blue and red board binding with white title.

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Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is a 2021 novel written by Nigerian playwright and novelist Wole Soyinka. It was released on 28 September 2021 by Bookcraft Africa.

The novel is a political satire, inspired by a report that Nigerians are among the happiest people on Earth. It tells the story of Dr. Kighare Menka, a surgeon who discovers a human body parts black-market scheme going on in his hospital. It is Soyinka’s third novel, and his first since Season of Anomy which was published in 1973.

Synopsis: The novel takes place in an imaginary version of Nigeria. A secret society made up of highly-placed members of the nation’s political and religious elite trades in human body parts for use in religious rituals.

The body parts are stolen from a hospital run by Dr. Kighare Menka, a surgeon who treats war victims and whose friend Duyole Pitan-Payne is about to begin a job at the United Nations in New York City as the representative of Nigeria. Duyole is targeted by mysterious forces who try to prevent him from taking the new position.

Duyole is killed after Dr. Menka informs him of the scheme going on in his hospital.

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde “Wole” Soyinka CFR (Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé “Wọlé” Ṣóyíinká, born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “wide cultural perspective and… poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence”, the first sub-Saharan African to win the Prize in literature.

In July 2024, President Bola Tinubu renamed the National Arts Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos, after Soyinka. Tinubu announced this in a tribute he wrote to celebrate Soyinka in commemoration of his 90th birthday.