A dazzling,
genre-defying novel in verse, from the author Delia Owens says “tackles the
absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent”
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the
likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book
Review, The Guardian, and NPR; he has been a finalist for the Man International
Booker Prize and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; and
his books have sold tens of thousands of copies around the world.
In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of
the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse
narrative, blending folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory, The Perfect
Nine chronicles the efforts the Gĩkũyũ founders make to find partners for their
ten beautiful daughters—called “The Perfect Nine” —and the challenges they set
for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. The epic has all the
elements of adventure, with suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice.
Ngũgĩ’s epic is a quest for the beautiful as an ideal of living, as the motive
force behind migrations of African peoples. He notes, “The epic came to me one
night as a revelation of ideals of quest, courage, perseverance, unity, family;
and the sense of the divine, in human struggles with nature and nurture.” ‘
One of Africa's literary Titans...a great great Writer
ReplyDeleteUtterly remarkable that the fabled Ngugi has been publishing literary masterpieces for over 50 years now.
ReplyDeleteAn incredibly revered Grandfather. More than world class
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