A Grain of Wheat

A Grain of WheatBy: Ngugi wa Thiong'o Series: Penguin African Writers Series Barack Obama, via Facebook: A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships. The Nobel Prizenominated Kenyan writers best known novel, featuring an introduction by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah Set 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

By: Ngugi wa Thiong'o   | Series: Penguin African Writers Series 

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Barack Obama, via Facebook: “A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships.”

The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel, featuring an introduction by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah

Set 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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