A dazzling short story collection from the person Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie calls one of the greatest writers of our time
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, although renowned for his novels, memoirs, and plays,
honed his craft as a short story writer. From The Fig Tree, written in
1960, his first year as an undergraduate at Makerere University College
in Uganda, to the playful The Ghost of Michael Jackson, written as a
professor at the University of California, Irvine, these collected
stories reveal a master of the short form.
Covering the period of British colonial rule and resistance in Kenya to
the bittersweet experience of independence--and including two stories
that have never before been published in the United States-- Ngũgĩ's
collection features women fighting for their space in a patriarchal
society, big men in their Bentleys who have inherited power from the
British, and rebels who still embody the fighting spirit of the
downtrodden. One of Ngũgĩ's most beloved stories, Minutes of Glory,
tells of Beatrice, a sad but ambitious waitress who fantasizes about
being feted and lauded over by the middle-class clientele in the city's
beer halls. Her dream leads her on a witty and heartbreaking adventure.
Published for the first time in America, Minutes of Glory and Other
Stories is a major literary event that celebrates the storytelling
might of one of Africa's best-loved writers.
