NOVEL (Trafford, 2009)

The Griot’s Tale tells the story of Adamah, the Griot (African story-teller) who, as a child, is filled with wonder and curiosity by his mother’s magical stories. From the Island plantations he travels to England where he gains his freedom.
The novel is set in England during the late eighteenth century and the Regency period, a time of great change. The Griot’s life takes many twists and turns, which brings him into contact with people from many lands. He meets and falls in love with Rachele, an English woman and from his London prison cell he tells his ‘Tale’ as he awaits ‘Trial’.

The Griot’s Tale is a work of art, a story of love and loss, of betrayal, bondage and freedom, in which the Griot emerges as an exceptional character in British literature, motivated by a deep need to understand and interpret his experience. He strives to become an ethical being (his life enfolded as a story within a story where unpredictability prevails) which he does through the seemingly unrealisable ambition of telling his own story in writing.

The Griot’s Tale is absorbing from beginning to end. As the tension grows, Ron Ramdin’s wonderful, inventive, fluent writing gets more adventurous from one episode to another. It is an exceptional literary work, a timely and timeless novel that will not fail to move those who read it.

Reviews

“…through the written word and simultaneously the attempt to get a hold on the language, the Griot encounters the sublime… it is rare to meet with a literary work where the plot and the style are a message in themselves… where words say more than it speaks and means more than it utters… here the search creates a melody that is read poetically between and beyond the words… The revelation of The Griot’s Tale is that those who can genuinely encounter with the sublime, do not die but are touched by that which is within us as mythical immortals.”

Dr. Ariella Atzmon
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

☆☆☆☆☆
“Ron Ramdin’s ‘The Griot’s Tale’ is a thought-provoking and inspirational work of genuine cultural importance … can’t wait for his next masterpiece!!”
FRH “knarf drassah” on amazon.co.uk