Devil on the Cross (Penguin African Writers Series) - Softcover

Wa Thiong'o, Ngugi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143107364 ISBN 13: 9780143107361

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2017

Synopsis

The great Kenyan writer and Nobel Prize nominee’s novel that he wrote in secret, on toilet paper, while in prison—featuring an introduction by Namwali Serpell, the author of the multiple prize–winning novel The Old Drift

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

About the Author

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–2025) was an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. In addition to Devil on the Cross, his novels A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, The River Between, and Weep Not, Child are available from Penguin Classics.

Namwali Serpell (introduction) has won the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. The author of the novels The Old Drift and The Furrows, she was born in Zambia and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a professor of English at Harvard.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143107364
• ISBN 13: 9780143107361
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320