Michel the Giant - An African in Greenland

'A completely unforgettable story' Afua Hirsch

The gripping true story of one man's ten year expedition from a village in West Africa to the Arctic Circle

WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR

Scorching heat, rich, fertile soil, and treacherous snakes marked the landscape in which Tété-Michel grew up in 1950s Togo, West Africa. When he discovered a book on Greenland as a teen, this distant land became an instant obsession - he was determined to journey to the place these pages had revealed to him and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.

A book of rich and immersive travel writing, Michel the Giant invites the reader to journey alongside an audacious Kpomassie as he makes his way from the equator to the bitter cold of the artic and settles into life with the Inuit peoples, adapting to their foods and customs. Part memoir, part anthropological observation this captivating narrative teems with nuanced observations on community, belonging and the universality of human experience.

This title has been previously published as An African in Greenland

About the author

Tété-Michel Kpomassie

Summary

The gripping true story of one man's ten year expedition from a village in West Africa to the Arctic Circle

WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR

Scorching heat, rich, fertile soil, and treacherous snakes marked the landscape in which Tété-Michel grew up in 1950s Togo, West Africa. When he discovered a book on Greenland as a teen, this distant land became an instant obsession - he was determined to journey to the place these pages had revealed to him and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.

A book of rich and immersive travel writing, Michel the Giant invites the reader to journey alongside an audacious Kpomassie as he makes his way from the equator to the bitter cold of the artic and settles into life with the Inuit peoples, adapting to their foods and customs. Part memoir, part anthropological observation this captivating narrative teems with nuanced observations on community, belonging and the universality of human experience.

This title has been previously published as An African in Greenland

Product details

• Authors: Tete-Michel Kpomassie, Tété-Michel Kpomassie
• Assisted by: James Kirkup (Translation), Kirkup James (Translation), Ros Schwartz (Translation)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 03.02.2022
• EAN: 9780241554531
• ISBN: 978-0-241-55453-1
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 15 mm
• Series: Penguin Modern Classics; Penguin Classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Europe, TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, TRAVEL / Europe / Iceland & Greenland, TRAVEL / Africa / West, Greenland, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Travel writing, Indigenous Peoples, Social and cultural anthropology, West Africa