Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

About Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

A landmark of postcolonial African literature, Wizard of the Crow is an ambitious, magisterial, comic novel from the acclaimed Kenyan novelist. As the tale opens, the Ruler of Aburiria has come down with a curious illness. To honour the Ruler's birthday, the Free Republic of Aburiria set out to build a tower, a modern wonder of the world that will reach the gates of Heaven. But behind this pillar of unity, a battle for control of the Aburirian people rages. Into this world steps Kamiti, a jobless graduate who reinvents himself as a wizard, and Nyawira, a woman activist who becomes his unlikely partner. The novel is a sprawling, 700-page carnival of satire, magic realism, and political outrage, drawing on oral storytelling traditions to create one of the most audacious works of fiction in the African canon. It is simultaneously hilarious and devastating, a total portrait of the absurdity of dictatorship and the eternal hunger of ordinary people for dignity and freedom.