A Grain of Wheat
The best-known novel by the great Kenyan writerSet in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo,...
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The best-known novel by the great Kenyan writerSet in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780143106760 (0143106767)
ASIN: 143106767
Publish date: June 5th 2012
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics,
Novels,
Academic,
Literature,
Cultural,
Africa,
Read For School,
Historical Fiction,
Literary Fiction,
African Literature,
Kenya,
Post Colonial
A Grain of Wheat centres a political narrative about the struggle for independence and liberation in Kenya; about rebellion against British imperialism, and on this level it is searing, laying bare the injustice from the point of view of a richly varied cast of rural Kenyan people. Ngugi draws on Co...
A story of Kenyan independence and the toll the preceding struggle took on people.Well, this is embarrassing--I don't know what to rate this. Based on the first couple pages I'd pegged it as a slog, and not expecting to enjoy it but feeling I should read it anyway for my world fiction challenge, rea...
'A Grain of Wheat' centers on Kenya's Uhuru, its attainment of independence and self-government, a time of celebration and pride. But Thiong'o uses it as a backdrop for a dark drama that is anything but celebratory. It is bleak and difficultly written. The first time I tried to read it I couldn't be...
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