The German Crocodile

"Written without anger or hectoring but with grace and humour, it is the true-life story of a gifted man who happens to be Nigerian-German growing up post-war in a conservative country which throws many challenges – and opportunities - in his path. It is that very German genre, the bildungsroman, both a moving personal history and an affectionate portrait of contemporary Germany. I loved it - and the style, autobiography told in the third person, enables the reader to be both insider and outsider, reflecting the experience of its remarkable author Ijoma Mangold.” Rosie Goldsmith, Journalist and Director of the European Literature Network - “The German Crocodile is a delight to read. Not only because it is eloquently, thoughtfully and often funnily written, but also because it is honestly written. In an era where writings around race, identity and belonging are often visibly geared towards forwarding one ideological agenda or the other, The German Crocodile makes for refreshing reading by exploring these issues in a manner that does not appear calculated. Mangold's combination of thoughtfulness, wit, nuance and lack of calculation is a much needed one for our times.” Dr Remi Adekoya, Author of Biracial Britain.- “This is about one man’s journey to his roots. It is also a book about memory: the limits and the unreliability of it. Things Mangold thought he knew to be irrefutable facts eventually turn out not to be so at all. Above all, this is a touching and beautiful exploration of what it means to both belong and not belong in spaces that claim you and those that you claim” Chika Unigwe, Award winning Nigerian writer and Professor of creative writing at Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.- “A beautifully written, rueful account of growing up not Nigerian enough for his well-meaning German neighbours.” Philip Hensher, The Spectator