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A Grain of Wheat (African Writers Series, AWS36)
Barack Obama, via Facebook: “A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships.”The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel
Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya’s independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village’s chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers’ tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.
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The Lovers (African Writers Series)
The Lovers collects Head’s short fiction of the 1960s and 70s, written mainly in Serowe, Botswana, and depicting the lives and loves of African village people pre- and post-independence.
An earlier selection called Tales of Tenderness and Power was published in the Heinemann African Writers Series in 1990, but this expanded and updated volume adds many previously unavailable stories collected here for the first time. Anthology favourites like her breakthrough The Woman from America and The Prisoner who Wore Glasses are included, leading up to the first complete text of her much translated title story.
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No Longer at Ease (African Writers Series, AWS3)
Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new role he finds that the way of government seems to be backhanders and corruption. Obi manages to resist the bribes that are offered to him, but when he falls in love with an unsuitable girl – to the disapproval of his parents – he sinks further into emotional and financial turmoil. The lure of easy money becomes harder to refuse, and Obi becomes caught in a trap he cannot escape.
Showing a man lost in cultural limbo, and a Nigeria entering a new age of disillusionment, No Longer at Ease concludes Achebe’s remarkable trilogy charting three generations of an African community under the impact of colonialism, the first two volumes of which are Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.
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The Black Hermit (African Writers Series, AWS51)
In this play, Remi, the first of his tribe to go to university, ponders whether or not he should return to his people. Or should he continue to be a black hermit in the town? Amidst the backdrop of a politically torn country, Remi himself is torn between his sense of tribalism and nationalism. This struggle runs deep, as he finds it at the heart of his afflictions between himself, his marriage and familial relations, and his greater sense of obligations to his people and the country. The overwhelming nature of these problems drives him into isolation as a black hermit. His self-imposed exile into the city leads him to find contentment in the Jane, his new lover, and nightly clubbing. However, after he is lobbied to return to the tribe, he must now confront the demons of his past.
The Black Hermit was the first published East African play in English. The play was published in a small edition by Makerere University Press in 1963, and republished in Heinemann’s African Writers Series in 1968.
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Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
This is the spiritual journey of a boy who follows his heart and goes through various lives to finally understand what it means to be enlightened. He experiences life as a pious brahmin, a Samana, a rich merchant, a lover, and an ordinary ferryman, to a father. Nether a practitioner nor a devotee, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader’s ear down to hear answers from the river…
₵75.00₵80.00Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
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Small Affairs (Pacesetters)
The lives of Nompumulelo and Lindon are bound together, and it often seems as if they were made for each other. Yet the small affairs of life lead each one into a separate path. Can they be happy apart or will the threads that bind them together prove stronger than anything else?
₵75.00Small Affairs (Pacesetters)
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Dealers in Death (Pacesetters)
A grisly trade in kidnapped children leads Paul Okoro into the net of a chillingly cruel villain with a taste for the bizarre — black widow spiders. Paul finds himself in deadly danger with no apparent way out. Can Aimie, his wife or any of his friends find him and his baby son in time or is this the end for the one-legged journalist who has risked himself so often for others?
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Too Young to Die (Pacesetters)
When two young honeymooners arrive in Nairobi, little do the authorities realise they are up against two experts in the world of organised crime. Their job is to steal a precious stone from a Maasai tycoon and they are successful…until events turn against them.
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Sweet Revenge (Pacesetters)
Ovie’s girlfriend is killed when some new school buildings collapse during a bad storm. He and his four friends decide to avenge her death and devise a bold plan to get even with the building contractors.
After rigorous training, the friends are ready to perform their ingenious operation which will stun the whole community. Only the impatience and greed of one member of the gang may lead to their downfall and thwart their daring revenge.
₵75.00Sweet Revenge (Pacesetters)
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Remember Death (Pacesetters)
Rango will stop at nothing to make money, live in London, and have a good life. He becomes involved with Laxman, the unscrupulous importer of chemicals, and out-of-date chemicals which will affect the living of thousands of coffee farmers pour into the country. When it seems that they are about to be unmasked, Rango recruits a young factory worker to blow up the Dar es Salaam chemicals factory. Malleko finds himself in an unhappy position. Whatever he does will lead to his death.
₵75.00Remember Death (Pacesetters)
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The Gun Merchant (Pacesetters)
‘Understand, Joe…you must be unscrupulous, otherwise you’ll go hungry. Remember, guns don’t kill, it’s people who kill.’
So it would seem to the power-crazed Apa, the most unscrupulous man of them all. To him life seems easy, so long as he retains the upper hand.
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The Runaway Bride (Pacesetters)
The wedding has been arranged and the guests and the bridegroom are waiting in the Cathedral – but where is the bride?
What is it that has made life with handsome, wealthy Philip seem impossible after all?
Pamela has got to get away to find herself, her true vocation and – could it be? – love.
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The Border Runners (Pacesetters)
Waichari’s parents are tragically killed in a car crash leaving him with huge debts and a younger brother and sister to care for. Their farm will have to be auctioned unless Waichari can find the money. There is only one way to get it quickly – Waichari will have to risk everything by joining the smuggling trade (magendo) at Chepkube on the Kenyan/Ugandan border. It is a dangerous game and he cannot even tell Janet, the girl he loves, what he is doing.
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The Last Aloe (Pacesetters)
Zanele would never forget this moment. She knew she was bound to this stranger with a deep love forever.
When her twin sister dies Zanele is oppressed by family and tradition. In turning to the strangers, she hopes to find the comfort she longs for.
₵75.00The Last Aloe (Pacesetters)
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The Hopeful Lovers (Pacesetters)
Roseline Momoh enters university full of optimism. Her academic record is good, she has been accepted to study the subjects of her choice and, of most importance, she has met and fallen in love with a young medical student, Tade Eji, who reciprocates her feelings. But the relationship is not all that Roseline believes it to be and Tade’s character leads him, in spite of himself, to jeopardize his chances of happiness.
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