Novel · A way to begin
The Second Round
Lenrie Peters · 1965
Synopsis
In the wake of Sierra Leone's independence, young Doctor Kawa, who studied in England, comes back to settle in Freetown, the city of his childhood, confident in his future and in that of the country. He falls in love with a young woman whose infidelity he discovers, then lets himself be seduced by his neighbour's wife. He who saw life as simple finds himself caught up in the difficulties of others.
Context
Peters began the book during his years at Cambridge. It was published by Heinemann in 1965 and taken up the following year in the African Writers Series. A poem about Freetown, where the author had been a schoolboy, opens the narrative, which is partly autobiographical. Critics have compared it to Achebe's No Longer at Ease and to the books of William Conton; Charles Larson saw in it an “African Gothic”, a formula contested by Omolara Leslie. Head of Zeus reissued it in 2024.
Who it is for
A novel about the return of a doctor trained abroad, for those interested in the early years of independence.
Prizes and reception
Critics read in it the questions facing the Africa of its time: nationalism, Westernisation and the difficulty of return.
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