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Dreams in a Time of War. Ngugi Wa Thiongo
Ngugi Wa Thiong´o
€ 16.99
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Description for Dreams in a Time of War. Ngugi Wa Thiongo
Paperback. Telling the story of the author's grandparents and parents, and of his brothers' involvement in the violent Mau Mau uprising, this title etches a tumultuous era, capturing the landscape of Kenya, the people and their culture, and the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war. Num Pages: 272 pages, Illustrations. BIC Classification: 1HFGK; 2AB; 3JJ; BM; DSBH; DSK. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 205 x 130 x 18. Weight in Grams: 196.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born the fifth child of his father's third wife, in a family that includes twenty-four children born to four different mothers. He spent his 1930s childhood as the apple of his mother's eye, before attending school to slake what is considered a bizarre thirst for learning.
As he grows up, the wider political and social changes occurring in Kenya begin to impinge on the boy's life in both inspiring and frightening ways. Through the story of his grandparents and parents, and his brothers' involvement in the violent Mau Mau uprising, Ngugi deftly etches a tumultuous era, capturing the landscape, the people and their culture, and the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war.
Product Details
Publisher
Vintage
Number of pages
272
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2011
Condition
New
Number of Pages
272
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780099548522
SKU
V9780099548522
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-99
About Ngugi Wa Thiong´o
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.
Reviews for Dreams in a Time of War. Ngugi Wa Thiongo
In his crowded career and his 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
John Updike
The New Yorker
Delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest...calm and mature
Spectator
Moving, honest and informative, this is a book about the influence of stories, storytelling and storytellers. It is a reminder that every generation, however beleaguered, can dream to change the world
Independent
The work he offers us here is like nothing that's gone before: it is the chronicle of a child's single-minded pursuit of an education.... The picture of Kenya that he presents is admirably free of cant or sentimentality, and yet it is enough to make you weep
Washington Post
Ngugi has returned to his roots to produce something delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest
Michela Wrong
The Spectator
The surprise about Dreams in a Time of War is that, for all the provocation of history, and for all its clear-eyed evocation of an agonised time, it is not an angry book ... Ngugi's storyteller's instinct for character and place, for recurring motifs and telling symbols, triumphs over the bleakness of background...this memoir is a tale of triumph
Mary Crockett
The Scotsman
Essential reading for the author's many admirers
Michael Holman
Literary Review
Ngugi's storytelling skills never falter as he brings this far-away world vividly to life
Metro
Absorbing personal reflections that illuminate not just later careers, but the state of their peoples too.
Boyd Tonkin
Independent, Christmas round up
One of Kenya's greatest storytellers
James Urquhart
Financial Times
John Updike
The New Yorker
Delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest...calm and mature
Spectator
Moving, honest and informative, this is a book about the influence of stories, storytelling and storytellers. It is a reminder that every generation, however beleaguered, can dream to change the world
Independent
The work he offers us here is like nothing that's gone before: it is the chronicle of a child's single-minded pursuit of an education.... The picture of Kenya that he presents is admirably free of cant or sentimentality, and yet it is enough to make you weep
Washington Post
Ngugi has returned to his roots to produce something delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest
Michela Wrong
The Spectator
The surprise about Dreams in a Time of War is that, for all the provocation of history, and for all its clear-eyed evocation of an agonised time, it is not an angry book ... Ngugi's storyteller's instinct for character and place, for recurring motifs and telling symbols, triumphs over the bleakness of background...this memoir is a tale of triumph
Mary Crockett
The Scotsman
Essential reading for the author's many admirers
Michael Holman
Literary Review
Ngugi's storytelling skills never falter as he brings this far-away world vividly to life
Metro
Absorbing personal reflections that illuminate not just later careers, but the state of their peoples too.
Boyd Tonkin
Independent, Christmas round up
One of Kenya's greatest storytellers
James Urquhart
Financial Times