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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > Dreams in a Time of War

Dreams in a Time of War

A powerful memoir of an extraordinary Kenyan childhood by the widely celebrated international author.

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 was 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.

‘Delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest’
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

Author

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o

Books

Dreams in a Time of War

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o was born in 1938 in Kenya. He was educated at Makerere University College in Uganda. In 1964 he wrote his first novel Weep Not, Child.

In 1977 his play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) led to his arrest and imprisonment under Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenyan government. He spent a year in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison without charge. While behind bars he wrote the novel Devil on the Cross, and later captured his time in prison in Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary.

Ngũgi was released in 1978, but he and his family were continuously harassed by the Kenyan regime. Ngũgi left Kenya and went into exile in 1982. He continued to write and in 1986 his novel Matigari was banned in Kenya. In 1992 he became Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University and in 2004 he returned to Kenya for two years, until an armed robbery at his home once again forced him into exile for fear of his family’s safety.

Ngũgi is now Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Translator

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o

Books

Dreams in a Time of War

Ngũgi wa Thiong’o was born in 1938 in Kenya. He was educated at Makerere University College in Uganda. In 1964 he wrote his first novel Weep Not, Child.

In 1977 his play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) led to his arrest and imprisonment under Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenyan government. He spent a year in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison without charge. While behind bars he wrote the novel Devil on the Cross, and later captured his time in prison in Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary.

Ngũgi was released in 1978, but he and his family were continuously harassed by the Kenyan regime. Ngũgi left Kenya and went into exile in 1982. He continued to write and in 1986 his novel Matigari was banned in Kenya. In 1992 he became Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University and in 2004 he returned to Kenya for two years, until an armed robbery at his home once again forced him into exile for fear of his family’s safety.

Ngũgi is now Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Published by

Harvill Secker, 2010
Buy Book

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A powerful memoir of an extraordinary Kenyan childhood by the widely celebrated international author.

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 was 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.

‘Delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest’
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

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