Outlandish, surreal and enjoyable, Mabanckou brings a new power to magic realism. All human beings, says an African legend, have an animal double. Some doubles are benign, others wicked. When Kibandi, a boy living in a Congolese village, reaches the age of 11, his father takes him out into the night, and forces him to drink a vile liquid from a jar which has been hidden for years in the earth. This is his initiation. From now on he, and his double, the porcupine, become accomplices in murder. They attack neighbours, fellow villagers, people who simply cross their path, for reasons so slight, it is virtually impossible to establish connection between the killings. Throughout his life Kibandi relies on his double to act out his grizzly compulsions, until one day even the porcupine baulks, and turns instead to literary confession.