John Thieme

Monochrome Morality

Wizard of the Crow

By

Harvill Secker 768pp £18.99 order from our bookshop

The publication of East Africa’s most famous writer’s first novel in nearly two decades is inevitably a landmark event in the history of African publishing. Additionally, Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow is a huge and highly ambitious book, a work that weighs in at more than a quarter of a million words. So, given his talent for incisive social and political commentary, one might expect this doorstopper of a novel to provide some kind of definitive fictional statement on the contemporary Condition of Africa. 

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    • 'The heroic male nude could not, I think, be used today to signify civic pride and glory', as Michelangelo’s 'David… ,
    • 'Munch’s later works show us a man liberated from the torments that gave rise to some of the best-known early works… ,
    • 'We read from left to right and from start to finish. Or do we?' Stuart Hannabus considers the merits of reading i… ,
    • Domestic scandal, sexual abuse and serial killers are on the menu in April's crime round-up. revie… ,
    • What did Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell and Edmund Burke all have in common? Clare Bucknell reveal… ,
    • 'Behind Berlusconi’s greasepaint and his rictus grin, the performance of Toni Servillo suggests the affectless holl… ,
    Follow Us