Upon being longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o speaks to us about The Perfect Nine, and how language is a treasury of beauty
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's books include the novels Petals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977
Other novels include A Grain of Wheat and Wizard of the Crow. He wrote three volumes of the memoirs, Dreams in a Time of War, In the House of the Interpreter and Birth of a Dream Weaver, and several essays, including Decolonizing the Mind, Something Torn and New and Globalectics.
Recipient of many honours, among them ten honorary doctorates, he was also Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.
He was shortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize 2009 for his body of work and was longlisted for The International Booker Prize in 2021 for The Perfect Nine. He died on 28 May 2025, aged 87.
All nominated books
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective
