A Grain of Wheat
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Abdulrazak Gurnah & Chinua Achebe
- Release Date: 2012-06-05
- Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 15 Ratings
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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