Weep Not, Child

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The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s powerful first novel

Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, stand on a garbage heap and look into their futures: Njoroge is to attend school, while Kamau will train to be a carpenter. But this is Kenya, and the times are against them: In the forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against the white government, and the two brothers and their family need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up.

The first East African novel published in English, Weep Not, Child explores the effects of the infamous Mau Mau uprising on the lives of ordinary men and women, and on one family in particular.

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.“One of the greatest writers of our time.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian

“His novels . . . have been deservedly canonized by the iconic [Penguin Classics] series.” —The Wall Street Journal

“One of the signal novels to emerge from an artist listening to both the well of tradition and the troubled oracles of his time . . . In Weep Not, Child, Ngugi’s art is at its purest. To my mind it is classic Ngugi, his Romeo and Juliet, his tale of young love set against the backdrop of opposing families and a world seething with violence and injustice.” —Ben Okri, from the IntroductionNgugi wa Thiong’o is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Irvine, California, where he is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Ben Okri won the Booker Prize in 1991 for his novel The Famished Road. He was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and lives in London.US

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