The Whole World Company - Kenya - Books

STORE SECTIONS

YOUR GUARANTEE

All products and services come with a 30-day return guarantee

Culture

Store > Browse by Country > Africa > Kenya > Culture

	Ngugi wa Thiong'o - A Grain of Wheat Originally published in 1967, Ngugi's third novel is his best known and most ambitious work. A Grain of Wheat portrays several characters in a village whose intertwined lives are transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency in Kenya. As the action follows the village's arrangements for Uhuru (independence) Day, this is a novel of stories within stories, a narrative interwoven with myth as well as allusions to real-life leaders of the nationalist struggle, including Jomo Kenyatta. At the centre of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by 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. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141186992 Published: 2002 Paperback: 272 pages Price: £9.99


	Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Petals of Blood 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. 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. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141187026 Published: 2002 Paperback: 432 pages Price: £10.99


	Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Weep Not Child An extraordinary story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women in Kenya. Two small boys stand on a rubbish heap and look into the future. One by is excited, he is beginning school; the other, his brother, is an apprentice carpenter. Together, they will serve their country - the teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya, and times are against them. In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and the two brothers, Kamau and Njoroge, and the rest of their family, need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical man, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge, the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up. Ngugi wa Thiong'o is one of Africa's most influential and exciting writers. This is his second novel. Publisher: Heinemann ISBN: 0435908308 Published: 1988 Paperback Price: £7.40


	Karen Blixen - Out of Africa From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Karen Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs. Out of Africa is the story of a remarkable and unconventional woman and of a way of life that has vanished for ever. Isak Dinesen was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art in Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they went to Kenya to manage the coffee plantation. After their divorce in 1921, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark in 1931. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141183330 Published: 2001 Paperback: 336 pages Price: £7.99


	Elspeth Huxley - The Flame Trees of Thika In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers among the Kikuyu people, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases and discovered Africa. Publisher: Pimlico ISBN: 0712666133 Published: 1998 Paperback: 288 pages Price: £12.99

Store > Browse by Country > Africa > Kenya > Culture

CART DETAILS

HELP

For all the information you need on shopping at our store, click here

For help with your order, click on the Help link