Across the Bridge by Mwangi Gicheru

About Mwangi Gicheru

Across the Bridge by Mwangi Gicheru

Across the Bridge narrates the story of two young lovers, Chuma and Caroline Wambui, whose social and economic worlds are distinctly apart. Chuma is a houseboy serving the family of Kahuthu, Caroline's father — a civil servant representing the neo-colonial bourgeoisie. (Google Books) The novel voyages through a sea of love versus class. Chuma, a hopeless houseboy, falls in love with his harsh master's daughter Caroline. Things spiral out of hand when the schoolgirl becomes pregnant and Chuma runs away. She follows him — and he must ask how he will cross the social class bridge to her world, and how he will handle the wrath of Kihuthu. (goodreads) The novel is one of the most widely read in Kenyan history, adored for generations by secondary school students and adults alike for its pacy, romantic storytelling and its sharp insight into the class tensions that independence never resolved. It is a book many Kenyans have read dozens of times.