Ngugi Wa Thiong'O <br/><br/>
IN THE HOUSE OF THE INTERPRETER : A MEMOIR 

 - 1 
 - London  Harvill Secker, Random House  2012/07/01 
 -  240 
<br/><br/> "From the world-renowned Kenyan novelist, poet, playwright, and literary critic, the second volume of his memoirs, spanning 1955-1959, the author's high school years during the tumultuous Mau Mau Uprising. In the House of the Interpreter evokes a haunting childhood at the end of British colonial rule in Africa, and the formative experiences of a political dissident"-- Provided by publisher.<br/><br/>During the early fifties, Kenya was a country in turmoil. While Ngugi enjoys scouting trips, chess tournaments and reading about Biggles at the prestigious Alliance School near Nairobi, things are changing at home. He arrives back for his first visit since starting school to find his house razed to the ground and the entire village moved up the road closer to a guard checkpoint. Later, his brother, Good Wallace, who fights for the rebels, is captured by the British and taken to a concentration camp. Finally, Ngugi himself comes into conflict with the forces of colonialism when he is victimised by a police officer on a bus journey and thrown in prison for six days. This fascinating memoir charts the development of a significant voice in international literature, as well as standing as a record of the struggles of a nation to free itself.<br/><br/>Review<br/>"Growing up in Kenya in the 1950s, the future novelist went to an elite school run by a Briton just as the Mau Mau uprising swept his family into the revolt against colonial rule. This powerful memoir depicts a youth torn between these separate worlds" (i)<br/><br/>"This is a book about a young boy’s fear, not just of letting his mother down or failing to fulfill his potential, but some of the worst political violence that Africa endured in the colonial period" (Tim Butcher Mail on Sunday)<br/><br/>"No writer alive today has more complex experience to draw upon or greater resource to convey it" (Brian Morton Glasgow Herald)<br/><br/>"The only thing more amazing than identifying the themes of your life is using them to create deceptively simple literature about it. Such labor is child’s play for the Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o... [With] echoes of Barack Obama’s own Dreams... [Thiong’o] easily keeps the balance between the whimsical, political, spiritual and personal" (Todd Steven Burroughs Ebony)<br/><br/>"Eloquently telegraphs the complicated experience of being simultaneously oppressed and enlightened at the hands of a colonial regime" (New York Times Book Review)<br/><br/>Book Description<br/>A childhood memoir set in Kenya from the International Man Booker nominated author, Ngugi wa Thiong'o.<br/><br/> 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9781846556289 
<br/><br/><label>Source: </label> Purchase  Prism Books, Kadavanthra, Ernakulam 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Autobiography<br/>PERSONS IN LITERATURE<br/>Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo, 1938- Authors, Kenyan--20th century--Biography. Revolutionaries--Kenya--Biography. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. HISTORY / Africa / East.
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>928