Flat lay of 12 poetry books against a bright red background

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Reading lists

12 poetry collections to help you understand the world

A host of short story collections photographed against a red background

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12 short story collections to sink into

The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi

The Perfect Nine

A dazzling, feminist novel in verse that reimagines the origin story of the Gikuyu people of Kenya, from the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls 'one of the greatest writers of our time'

A vivid, exhilarating tale with a surprisingly modern philosophy that emphasises the importance of tolerance, feminism and respect for the environment

As pacy and addictive as it is measured. Thick with allegory and adventure...this is a beautifully told epic about the fundamentals of humanity

A beautiful work that not only refuses distinctions between "high art" and traditional storytelling, but supplies that all-too rare human necessity: the sense that life has meaning

The Perfect Nine uses a deceptively simple language that lays bare deep truths.

In this sinuous retelling by the great Kenyan writer, the founding myth of the Gikuyu people emerges as an epic poem rivalling the Iliad in body count and surpassing it in whimsy.

Unfolding in wry and lyrical verse, The Perfect Nine tells a Homeric odyssey of the creation of the entire Gikuyu people-a creationist myth, an adventure tale, and a family story, wherein the wives do not simply wait at home.

The Perfect Nine is one of the year's great discoveries.

It is the farthest you could possibly get from the grim, wet reality of a lockdown Christmas in London and is exactly what I want to escape with

[The Perfect Nine] departs from the sprawl of his past novels into an engaging if slight lyrical epic. Combining Homeric verse with oral storytelling tropes-choruses, chants, songs-he retells the origin myth of the Gikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. . . . Thiong'o's fans will appreciate this.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's first venture into epic poetry is a triumph of the form, which resounds with the lyrical heartbeat of the Gikuyu people in Kenya as Ngugi chronicles their mythic history.

A tremendous writer... it's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

In his crowded career and eventful life, Ngugi has enacted, for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a contemporary African writer, caught in sometimes implacable political, social, racial and linguistic currents

Ngugi masterfully sings us through an origin story written in verse. This book is a magisterial and poetic tale about women's place in a society of Gods. It is also about disability and how expectations shape and determine characters' spiritual anchoring.

[The Perfect Nine's] sophistication comes from the use of the narrative voice, which positions the reader as part of a common humanity

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the leading writers and scholars at work in the world today. His books include the novels Petals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977, A Grain of Wheat and Wizard of the Crow; the memoirs, Dreams in a Time of War, In the House of the Interpreter and Birth of a Dream Weaver; and the essays, Decolonizing the Mind, Something Torn and New and Globalectics. Recipient of many honours, among them ten honorary doctorates, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE.* 'One of the greatest writers of our time' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
 
The Perfect Nine is a glorious epic about the founding of Kenya's Gikuyu people and the ideals of beauty, courage and unity. 
 
Gikuyu and Mumbi settled on the peaceful and bounteous foot of Mount Kenya after fleeing war and hunger. When ninety-nine suitors arrive on their land, seeking to marry their famously beautiful daughters, called The Perfect Nine, the parents ask their daughters to choose for themselves, but to choose wisely. 
 
First the young women must embark on a treacherous quest with the suitors, to find a magical cure for their youngest sister, Warigia, who cannot walk. As they journey up the mountain, the number of suitors diminishes and the sisters put their sharp minds and bold hearts to the test, conquering fear, doubt, hunger and many menacing ogres, as they attempt to return home. But it is perhaps Warigia's unexpected adventure that will be most challenging of all. 
 
Blending folklore, mythology and allegory, Ngugi wa Thiong'o chronicles the adventures of Gikuyu and Mumbi, and how their brave daughters became the matriarchs of the Gikuyu clans, in stunning verse, with all the epic elements of danger, humour and suspense. 
 
'A tremendous writer... it's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong'o' Guardian

Wizard of the Crow

A huge, comic novel... A shimmering, shifting discourse... mythological but also cheerfully disenchanted; political and playful; cartoonish but also epical... the African novel may well have delivered its greatest masterpiece

Truly exciting... the author is a master of farce

An impish and hallucinatory satire on dictatorship

Powerfully funny... Aburiria is recognisable as modern Africa in all its splendour, squalor, economic malaise and venality... it is hard not to be cheerd by the spirit of gentle resistance that is at its core, in defiance of everyday greed

Truthful in its dissection of power, and remarkably free of bitterness... the poisonousness of its targets never infects the author's vision, nor his faith in people's power to resist

It's a book of wonderful purple phases...restless, epic, allusive

Praise on Devil on the Cross: 
'This novel will be regarded as one of the historic staging posts of African Fiction. Ngugi is the most celebrated of African novelists. What he offers is nothing less than a new direction for African writing.

Praise on Petals of Blood 
Ambitious, caustic and impassioned

A mind-blowing political statement, an anguished cry of despair . . .  a bomshell

The definitive African book of the twentieth century.

Moses Isegawa, author of Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit

Informed by traditional African storytelling, discover Ngugi wa Thiong'o's masterpiece. 
 
 To honour the Ruler's birthday, the Free Republic of Aburiria set out to build a tower; a modern wonder of the world that will reach the gates of Heaven. But behind this pillar of unity a battle for control of the Aburirian people rages. Among the contenders: the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank. 
 
'Mythological but also cheerfully disenchanted; political and playful; cartoonish but also epical... the African novel may well have delivered its greatest masterpiece' Sunday Herald

Petals of Blood

A compelling novel about the tragedy of corrupting power, set in post-independence Kenya. . . Ngugi writes with passion about every form, shape and colour which power can take

A mind-blowing political statement, an anguished cry of despair… a bombshell

'A compelling novel about the tragedy of corrupting power, set in post-independence Kenya... Ngugi writes with passion about every form, shape and colour which power can take' Sunday Times 
 
 After decades of British rule Kenya has declared its independence, but drought and poor harvests still govern the village of Ilmorog. Undeterred, Munira, Karega, Wanja and Abdulla each move to Ilmorog in search of a more provincial life, only to find themselves suspects in a crime that signals a dark turning of the times. 
 
A classic of modern African literature, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's damning satire of politics and corruption in Kenya would prove the catalyst for his imprisonment by the Kenyan government.

Secret Lives & Other Stories

A tremendous writer... It's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

'One of the greatest writers of our time' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
 
 Ngugi wa Thiong'o is renowned for his political novels and plays, yet he honed his craft as a short story writer. First published in 1975, Secret Lives and Other Stories brings together a range of Ngugi's political short stories. 
 
From tales of the meeting between magic and superstition, to stories about the modernising forces of colonialism, and the pervasive threat of nature, this collection celebrates the storytelling might of one of Africa's best-loved writers.

A Prison Memoir

Wrestling with the Devil

An unforgettable chronicle of the year the brilliant novelist and memoirist, long favoured for the Nobel Prize, endured in a Kenyan jail

One of the greatest writers of our time

A tremendous writer... It's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Ngugi is affording us a glimpse into how a prisoner of conscience, by stubbornly reiterating his convictions, keeps faith with the ideals that those in power want him to betray... This thrilling testament to the human spirit had, for me, a fierce resonance... I could not help feeling that his luminous words were meant for those victims and many others being persecuted across the world, a way of urging humanity to never surrender to the demons of fear and silence

One of Kenya's greatest storytellers

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s powerful prison memoir begins half an hour before his release on 12 December 1978. A year earlier, he recalls, armed police arrived at his home and took him to Kenya’s Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. There, Ngugi lives in a block alongside other political prisoners, but he refuses to give in to the humiliation. He decides to write a novel in secret, on toilet paper – it is a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross. 
 
Wrestling with the Devil is Ngugi’s unforgettable account of the drama and challenges of living under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the pain caused by his isolation from his family, but also the spirit of defiance and the imaginative endeavours that allowed him to survive.

A Writer’s Awakening

Birth of a Dream Weaver

In this moving and thought-provoking memoir, the great writer speaks of his emergence during one of Africa's most violent periods

I particularly loved [Birth of A Dream Weaver]… Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time.

The book tracks the blossoming of a politically conscious young writer’s talent in the nurturing environment that was Makerere in its prime. Egged on by fellow students, encouraged by the progressive dean Hugh Dinwiddy and offered tips by a visiting Chinua Achebe, Ngugi finds his creative voice just as a continent is finding its freedom. The convictions he forms will last a lifetime: the quest for African dignity and self-realization, a rejection of Western hegemony, a passionate call for Africans to tell their own story in their own indigenous languages.

Ngugi has written an autobiographical masterpiece... a riveting read in African history and literature

Ngugi wa Thiong’o recalls his upbringing in colonial Kenya... Mr Ngugi’s unstated goal throughout this book is reclamation...of much of the colonial endeavour in east Africa.

‘Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time’ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
 
Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Guardian 
 
When Ngugi wa Thiong’o arrives at the prestigious Makerere University, it embodies all the potential and excitement of the early 1960s. Campus is a haven of opportunity for the brightest African students, a meeting place for thinkers and writers from all over the world, and its alumni are filling Africa’s emerging political and cultural positions. 
 
 Despite the challenges he faces as a young black man in a British colony, it is here that Ngugi begins to find his voice as a playwright, journalist and novelist, writing his first, pivotal works just as the countries of East Africa enter the final stages of their independence struggles.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi is the most celebrated of African novelists. What he offers is nothing less than a new 
direction for African writing

Who owns language? In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngugi wa Thiong’o presents a series of essays that build on his vast wealth of work on language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity. Intricate, nuanced and accessible, it reaffirms the revolutionary power of African languages to fight back against both the psychic and material impacts of colonialism, past and present. With immense relevance to our present moment, Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a brilliant distillation of the enduring themes of Ngugi’s work and a vital addition to the library of one of the world’s greatest and most provocative living writers.

Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas

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12 poetry collections to help you understand the world

12 short story collections to sink into

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