Dreams in a Time of War A Childhood Memoir

In his crowded career and his eventful life, Ngugi has enacted, for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a contemporary African writer caught in sometimes implacable political, social, racial, and linguistic currents John Updike The New Yorker

"In his crowded career and his eventful life, Ngugi has enacted, for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a contemporary African writer caught in sometimes implacable political, social, racial, and linguistic currents" -- John Updike The New Yorker "Delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest...calm and mature" Spectator "Moving, honest and informative, this is a book about the influence of stories, storytelling and storytellers. It is a reminder that every generation, however beleaguered, can dream to change the world" Independent "The work he offers us here is like nothing that's gone before: it is the chronicle of a child's single-minded pursuit of an education... The picture of Kenya that he presents is admirably free of cant or sentimentality, and yet it is enough to make you weep" Washington Post "Ngugi has returned to his roots to produce something delicate, fresh and scrupulously honest" -- Michela Wrong The Spectator