The Half-God of Rainfall. Inua Ellams

The Half-God of Rainfall - Inua  Ellams


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       Copyright

      4th Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.4thEstate.co.uk

      This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2019

      Copyright © Inua Ellams 2019

      Cover design by Jack Smyth

      Inua Ellams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008324773

      Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008324780

      Version: 2019-03-12

       Dedication

      For Veronica Ellams, Mariam Asuquo, Hadiza Alex Ellams, Claire Trévien, Annabel Stapleton Crittendon, Imogen Butler Cole, Joelle Taylor and Michaela Coel.

      In solidarity with women who have spoken against or stood up to male abuses of power in all its forms.

       Epigraphs

      I’m a poet so I can empathise with minor gods

      – Chuma Nwokolo

      The first madness was that we were born,

      that they stuffed a god into a bag of skin

      – Akwaeke Emezi

      I, too, once dribbled that old bubble, happiness,

      and found in time the scramble and the rules

      doubtful

      – W Belvin

      I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

      welling and swelling I bear in the tide

      – Maya Angelou

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Epigraphs

       Portrait of Prometheus

       ACT ONE

       BOOK I

       BOOK II

       BOOK III

       ACT TWO

       BOOK I

       BOOK II

       BOOK III

       ACT THREE

       BOOK I

       BOOK II

       BOOK III

       About the Author

       About the Publisher

       Portrait of Prometheus

      Portrait of Prometheus

      as a basketball player.

      His layup will start from mountains

      not with landslide, rumble or gorgon clash

      of titans, but as shadow-fall across stream –

      some thief-in-the-night-black-Christ-

      type stealth. In the nights before this,

      his name, whispered in small circles, muttered

      by demigods and goddesses, spread rebellious,

      rough on the tongues of whores and queens,

      pillows pressed between thighs, moaning.

      Men will call him father, son or king

      of the court. His stride will ripple oceans,

      feet whip-crack quick, his back will scar,

      hunched over, a silent storm about him.

      Both hands scorched and bleeding;

      You see nothing but sparks splash off

      his palms, nothing but breeze beneath

      his shuck ’n’ jive towards the basket

      carved of darkness, net of soil and stars.

      Fearing nothing of passing from legend to myth

      he fakes left, crossover, dribbles down

      the line and then soars – an eagle chained

      to hang time.

      – Inua Ellams

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