Author(s): Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Fiction

The great Kenyan writer and Nobel Prize nominee's novel that he wrote in secret, on toilet paper, while in prison--as described in his memoir Wrestling with the Devil

One of the cornerstones of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's fame, Devil on the Cross is a powerful fictional critique of capitalism. It tells the tragic story of Wariinga, a young woman who moves from a rural Kenyan town to the capital, Nairobi, only to be exploited by her boss and later by a corrupt businessman. As she struggles to survive, Wariinga begins to realize that her problems are only symptoms of a larger societal malaise and that much of the misfortune stems from the Western, capitalist influences on her country. An impassioned cry for a Kenya free of dictatorship and for African writers to work in their own local dialects, Devil on the Cross has had a profound influence on Africa and on post-colonial African literature.

Introduction by Binyavanga Wainaina and Namwali Serpell . Contribution by Chinua Achebe