Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood MemoirMan Booker International Prize Finalist • By the world-renowned novelist, playwright, critic, and author of Wizard of the Crow, an evocative and affecting memoir of childhood. “A testament to the resilience of youth and the strength of hope."—The Boston Globe Born in 1938 in rural Kenya, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o came of age in the shadow of World War II, amidst the terrible bloodshed in the war between the Mau Mau and the British. The son of a man whose four wives bore him more than a score of children, young Ngũgĩ displayed what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning, yet it was unimaginable that he would grow up to become a world-renowned novelist, playwright, and critic. In Dreams in a Time of War, Ngũgĩ deftly etches a bygone era, bearing witness to the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war. Speaking to the human right to dream even in the worst of times, this rich memoir of an African childhood abounds in delicate and powerful subtleties and complexities that are movingly told. |
Contents
Section 18 | 122 |
Section 19 | 129 |
Section 20 | 146 |
Section 21 | 158 |
Section 22 | 166 |
Section 23 | 171 |
Section 24 | 177 |
Section 25 | 187 |
Section 9 | 58 |
Section 10 | 71 |
Section 11 | 75 |
Section 12 | 79 |
Section 13 | 87 |
Section 14 | 91 |
Section 15 | 97 |
Section 16 | 110 |
Section 17 | 115 |
Section 26 | 196 |
Section 27 | 204 |
Section 28 | 211 |
Section 29 | 218 |
Section 30 | 222 |
Section 31 | 228 |
Section 32 | 243 |
Section 33 | 252 |
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Common terms and phrases
African Orthodox Church Alliance High School Baba Mükürü Bata Shoe became become boys British called church College colonial cows crowd daughter dreams effendi Elburgon elder European exams eyes father friends Gacoki Gîküyü girls goats grandfather grandmother half brother Harry Thuku heard Home Guard homestead Indian shops inside Jomo Jomo Kenyatta Kabae Kahahu Kahanya Kamandūra Karanja Karīng'a Kenneth Kenya Teachers Kenyatta Kikuyu Kîmathi KISA KKEA Koinange land later learned Limuru Limuru Bata Shoe look Lord Reverend Manguo Manguo school marketplace Mau Mau Mbiyū mind missionary Mombasa mother mother's house Nairobi never Ngandi Ngũgĩ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Ngurueni night Njeri Njimi Operation Anvil pyrethrum pyrethrum fields Reverend Kahahu road side singing sometimes songs story talk tell Thiong'o tion told took train truck Uncle Gîcini voice Wabia walk Wallace Mwangi wanted wife women words younger brother