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Wizard of the Crow

Wizard of the Crow

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Written by Ngugi wa'Thiong'oAuthor Alerts: Random House will alert you to new works by Ngugi wa'Thiong'o

  • Format: Trade Paperback, 784 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor
  • On Sale: August 28, 2007
  • Price: $16.95
  • ISBN: 978-1-4000-3384-3 (1-4000-3384-5)
Also available as an eBook.
about this book

In exile now for more than twenty years, Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet and critic Ngugi wa Thiong’o has become one of the most widely read African writers.

Commencing in “our times” and set in the fictional “Free Republic of Aburiria,” Wizard of the Crow dramatizes with corrosive humor and keenness of observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburirian people. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, this magnificent novel reveals humanity in all its endlessly surprising complexity.


“Wizard of the Crow is first and foremost a great, spellbinding tale, probably the crowning glory of Ngugi’s life’s work. . . . He has turned the power of storytelling into a weapon against totalitarianism.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“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

“An allegory presented as a modern-day folk tale (complete with tricksters, magic, disguised lovers and daring escapes). . . . Ngugi writes simply and unaffectedly about his characters. . . . It recalls a long yarn told by firelight.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Ngugi is one of Africa’s greatest writers, and certainly the foremost voice of Kenyan literature. . . . Possibly the best comparison to make of Wizard of the Crow is with Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.”
—San Francisco Chronicle