AFRICAN NOVEL • LION HUNT

Hanley, Gerald (1916–1992)

The Year of the Lion

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954. First American Editon.
Colonial Africa novel of survival, identity, and the myth of the hunt

A powerful mid-century novel set in colonial East Africa, The Year of the Lion reflects Gerald Hanley’s firsthand experience in the region, blending adventure narrative with psychological and cultural tension.

The story follows a young Englishman coming of age in the African interior, where encounters with landscape, danger, and conflicting cultures shape his identity. What begins as a tale of frontier life builds into a deeper examination of colonial psychology, isolation, and moral ambiguity, with the central lion hunt serving as both literal and symbolic climax.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Octavo; 8 inches tall. Pagination: [7]–256 pages. Publisher’s cloth binding. Original dust jacket with printed review panel and design credit to Cas Norwaish.

CONDITION: Bindings are tight and square. Text is clean; light, even age-toning.Moderate shelf handling wear with some hand soiling. Dust jacket price-clipped with loss at spine ends and chipping along edges. A Good copy in an acceptable jacket.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT / SIGNIFICANCE —
Hanley belongs to a group of mid-20th-century British writers who re-examined the colonial experience with increasing psychological depth. His African novels anticipate later post-colonial themes by exposing instability beneath imperial assumptions.

Gerald Hanley’s work is rooted in lived experience. Having served and traveled extensively in Africa, he brings an authenticity that separates his fiction from more romanticized colonial narratives. In The Year of the Lion, the African setting is not merely backdrop but an active force—shaping behavior, exposing weakness, and challenging imposed European identity.

The novel’s tension arises from this collision: the young protagonist’s expectations of empire and masculinity are steadily dismantled by the realities of environment and human complexity. The lion hunt, central to the narrative, operates as both a test of courage and a symbolic confrontation with fear, illusion, and control.

SUBJECTS: British Colonial Africa, East Africa Fiction, Lion Hunting Narrative, Coming of Age, Psychological Fiction, Mid-Century Literature, Fiction, Colonial Literature, Adventure.

Item #21965

Price: $20.00