A Grain of Wheat.

NGUGI, James [Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o].

$3,000.00

Item Number: 144382

London: William Heinemann, 1967.

First edition of the author’s magnum opus. Octavo, original cloth. Lengthily signed by the author on the title page, “I’ll change the woman’s figure. I shall curve a woman big- big with child” NW Thiong’o 24th October 2006 Irvine.” Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket.

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.