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There are three Madagascar novels. The first, Madagascar in the Time of Covid, follows an elderly novelist to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, where he is confined in his hotel for months thanks to the COVID pandemic. While there, he writes a meta-novel about Madagascar, using some real people in his hotel as characters, but mixing them in with characters he imagines, and with the addition of magic realism scenes. The second novel, The Big Tsingy follows the fortunes of a group of tourist trekkers led by their guide, the illegitimate son of wealthy Europeans. The third entry, Avenue of the Baobabs, has a giant baobab tree for its narrator. This wise, but somewhat arrogant tree makes wry comments about the human beings who come to view it.
About the author
J. Hayes Hurley is a novelist and a philosopher. He currently has forty-eight published novels including Those Brownsville Blues, The Adjunct, First Trilogy, Second Trilogy, and Motion and Rest. As well, he holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale. Hurley contends, from an existentialist standpoint, that philosophy finds its best expression when contained in literature. His book covers display the works of well known painters. Altogether then, philosophy is contained in literature and literature is wrapped in art.
