In the House of the Interpreter

A Memoir

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During the early fifties, Kenya was a country in turmoil. While Ngugi enjoys scouting trips, chess tournaments and reading about Biggles at the prestigious Alliance School near Nairobi, things are changing at home. He arrives back for his first visit since starting school to find his house razed to the ground and the entire village moved up the road closer to a guard checkpoint. Later, his brother, Good Wallace, who fights for the rebels, is captured by the British and taken to a concentration camp. Finally, Ngugi himself comes into conflict with the forces of colonialism when he is victimised by a police officer on a bus journey and thrown in prison for six days. This fascinating memoir charts the development of a significant voice in international literature, as well as standing as a record of the struggles of a nation to free itself.

Growing up in Kenya in the 1950s, the future novelist went to an elite school run by a Briton just as the Mau Mau uprising swept his family into the revolt against colonial rule. This powerful memoir depicts a youth torn between these separate worlds
i

Many incidents in In the House of the Interpreter will remind readers of the great novels of the African American canon, particularly Richard Wright’s Black Boy and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man . . . . Considering the scope of Ngugi’s life, when completed his extraordinary memoirs encompassing colonialism, post-colonialism, English racism, African despotism, exile and fame may well belong among the major works of history and literature of our time
Washington Post

About Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1938-2025) was born in Limuru, Kenya, and went on to become one of the leading writers and scholars of our times. He authored numerous works of fiction, memoir and essay, including A Grain of Wheat, Devil on the Cross and Decolonizing the Mind. Ngugi was the Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine; he held fourteen honorary doctorates, among other awards, and was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize.

Details

Imprint: Vintage
Published: 07/11/2013
ISBN: 9780099572244
Length: 256 pages
Dimensions: 197mm x 19mm x 129mm
Weight: 227g
Price: £10.99

All editions

Paperback 2013
Ebook 2012

In the House of the Interpreter

A Memoir

Format:

Buy the book from:

Growing up in Kenya in the 1950s, the future novelist went to an elite school run by a Briton just as the Mau Mau uprising swept his family into the revolt against colonial rule. This powerful memoir depicts a youth torn between these separate worlds

This is a book about a young boy’s fear, not just of letting his mother down or failing to fulfill his potential, but some of the worst political violence that Africa endured in the colonial period

No writer alive today has more complex experience to draw upon or greater resource to convey it

Eloquently telegraphs the complicated experience of being simultaneously oppressed and enlightened at the hands of a colonial regime

This is a compelling memoir and an interesting companion to his novels… a fine and fiery book

Ngugi has an admirable lightness of touch even …. This book is also a brave and vivid take on decline of British colonialism – a document of a remarkable writer’s coming-of-age that makes all the more poignant reading knowing ‘the memories of pain’ for him that are yet to come

It's a work of understated and heartfelt prose that relates one man's intimate view of the epic cultural and political shifts that created modern Africa... Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Kenya endures. And it comes alive in the pages of his brilliant and essential memoir

Beautifully crafted... A story for all time

About Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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