Book description
Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born the fifth child of his father's third
wife, in a family that includes twenty-four children born to four
different mothers. He spent his 1930s childhood as the apple of his
mother's eye, before attending school to slake what is considered a
bizarre thirst for learning.
As he grows up, the wider political and social changes occurring in
Kenya begin to impinge on the boy's life in both inspiring and
frightening ways. Through the story of his grandparents and parents,
and his brothers' involvement in the violent Mau Mau uprising, Ngugi
deftly etches a tumultuous era, capturing the landscape, the people
and their culture, and the social and political vicissitudes of life
under colonialism and war.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the
university of California, Irvine, and is director of the university's
International Centre for Writing and Translation. His books include
Petals of Blood
, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977,
A
Grain of Wheat
and
Wizard of the Crow
. He lives in Irvine, California.
