Penguin African Writers

5 primary works

Petals of Blood

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Published 10 September 1986

After a terrible murder in the village of Ilmorog four suspects are placed in detention: Munira the headmaster; Abdullah the storekeeper; Karega the assistant teacher and 'barmaid' Wanja. The lives of these four characters are inextricably linked with the lives of the three murder victims, the fortunes of Ilmorog and with the fate of Kenya itself. Published to great controversy in 1977, PETALS OF BLOOD is as much a whodunnit as a political novel and satire. Ngugi unfolds a human landscape that is both beautiful and horrifying, as tribalism and village life are manipulated in the name of progress by the cynical bureaucrats who came to power as heroes of liberation.

A Grain of Wheat

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Published March 1967

A masterly story of myth, rebellion, love, friendship and betrayal from one of Africa's great writers, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat includes an introduction by Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of By the Sea, in Penguin Modern Classics.

It is 1963 and Kenya is on the verge of Uhuru - Independence Day. The mighty british government has been toppled, and in the lull between the fighting and the new world, colonized and colonizer alike reflect on what they have gained and lost. In the village of Thabai, the men and women who live there have been transformed irrevocably by the uprising. Kihika, legendary rebel leader, was fatally betrayed to the whiteman. Gikonyo's marriage to the beautiful Mumbi was destroyed when he was imprisoned, while her life has been shattered in other ways. And Mugo, brave survivor of the camps and now a village hero, harbours a terrible secret. As events unfold, compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed and loves are tested.

Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o is the author of Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), and Petals of Blood (1977). Ngugi was chair of the Department of Literature at the University of Nairobi from 1972 to 1977. He left Kenya in 1982 and taught at various universities in the United States before he became professor of comparative literature and performance studies at New York University in 1992.

If you enjoyed A Grain of Wheat, you might like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'With Ngugi history is a living tissue ... this book adds cubits to his already considerable stature'
Guardian

Weep Not Child

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Published 7 December 1964

An extraordinary story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women in Kenya.

The River Between

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Published 7 February 1966

THE RIVER BETWEEN explores life on the Makuyu and Kameno ridges of Kenya in the early days of white settlement. Faced with an alluring, new religion and 'magical' customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it. Some fellow Joshua and his fiery brand of Christianity while others proudly pursue tribal independence. In the midst of this disunity stands Waiyaki, a dedicated visionary born to a line of prophets. He struggles to educate the tribe- a task he sees as the only unifying link between the two factions - but his plans for the future raise issues which will determine both his own and the Gikuyu's survival.

Devil on the Cross

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Published 7 June 1982

This remarkable and symbolic novel centres around Wariinga's tragedy and uses it to tell a story of contemporary Kenya faced with the "satan of capitalism." Ngugi has directed his writing even more firmly towards the commitment that he shows in Writers in Politics and Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary. The novel was written secretly in prison. It was discovered when almost complete but unexpectedly returned to him on his release. Such was the demand for the original Gikuyu edition that it reprinted on publication.