A magical, blackly funny tapestry of a book, which, through the rise and fall of its central character, the dictator of a small imaginary former French African colony, tells the story, bitter, painful and beautiful, of modern Africa.

Ahmadou Kourouma's remarkable novel is narrated by Bingo, a West African sora - storyteller and king's fool. Over the course of five nights he tells the life story of Koyaga, President and Dictator of the Gulf Coast. Orphaned at the age of seven, Koyaga grows up to be a terrible hunter; he fights mythical beasts, and is a shape-shifter, capable of changing himself into beasts and birds. He fights in the French colonial armies, in Vietnam and Algeria, but on his return he mounts a coup and becomes ruler and dictator of the Gulf Coast. For thirty years he runs a corrupt but 'clean' state, surviving repeated assassination attempts and gaining support and investment from abroad. But when the 'First World' decide they no longer want to support dictatorships and call for democracy, he needs another ruse to maintain himself in power-Part magic, part history, part savage satire, Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote is nothing less than a history of post-colonial Africa itself.--'A tour de force - original, irreverent, brutal, funny, poetic - in which history and myth are brilliantly evoked' Independent --'A brilliant, often hilarious, political satire' Daily Telegraph--'A brutal and fascinating work' The Times--'A thoroughgoing indictment of the African way of leadership' Guardian--'Witty and wholly authentic chronicle of black African atrocity-Spellbinding' Spectator--'At times riotously funny-Abrupt but frequently wonderful use of language' Times Literary Supplement