Parallel Worlds

In a small village in the West African rain forest, an anthropologist and her writer husband begin to translate one of his short stories during an evening storytelling session. Yet as soon as they present the main character's unusual dilemma - the loss of his shadow - a question is posed from the audience: "Was this the work of spirits?"
Parallel Worlds is a riveting chronicle by two visitors to a complex world rarely seen by outsiders: the vibrant daily lives of West African villagers, and the parallel, invisible realm of spirits that surround them. This beautifully written memoir recounts the deepening knowledge slowly acquired by Alma Gottlieb, a cultural anthropologist, and Philip Graham, a fiction writer, as they lived among the Beng, a previously unstudied people of Cote d'Ivoire.
In an engaging narrative of alternating voices, Gottlieb and Graham reveal how they observed and shared in their neighbors' unfolding dramas. While Gottlieb apprentices herself to an animist priest, assists in an emergency childbirth, and becomes embroiled against her will in a village trial, Graham consults a diviner for writer's block, helps fight an invasion of army ants, and has a bicycle accident that just might have been an attack by hill spirits.
Along the way, Parallel Worlds presents vivid portraits of unforgettable characters, including Yacouba, a young man enmeshed in the jealous battles of his two wives; San Yao, a village chief and ferocious defender of Beng traditions; Amenan, niece of a Beng king, and Gottlieb's steadfast friend; Nakoyan, the abused wife of an arranged marriage; and Amlakro, a village outcast believed to be a snake in human form.
Throughout these interweaving stories, Graham embarks on an unusual literary journey as he discovers a radically different culture's unseen agents of inspiration. For her part, Gottlieb writes with disarming honesty about the difficulties and contradictions of fieldwork, presenting both a critique and a celebration of anthropology. Imbued with humility, gentle humor, and a sweeping narrative power, Parallel Worlds is unlike any book ever written about Africa.