Grain of Wheat

The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel

Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya''s independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village''s chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers'' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.

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From the Trade Paperback edition.