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 theGuardian When Ngugi wa Thiongo 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 Africas 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 Thiongois one of the leading writers and scholars at work in the world today. His books include the novelsPetals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977,A Grain of WheatandWizard of the Crow;the memoirs,Dreams in a Time of War,In the House of the InterpreterandBirth of a Dream Weaver;and the essays,Decolonizing the Mind,Something Torn and NewandGlobalectics.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.