Praise for Birth of a Dream Weaver:
Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time.
–Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian, Best Books of 2016.
It's hard to think of another living writer today – Orhan Pamuk, perhaps – who speaks so inspiringly and convincingly about the value of literature. No serious reader will want to miss this riveting story.
–The Washington Post
Evocative, poignant, and thoughtful, Thiong'o's courageous narrative will linger in readers' minds.
–Publishers Weekly (starred)
A writer's coming-of-age tale featuring an artistic mix of pride and humility.
–Kirkus Reviews
An autobiographical masterpiece. . . As essential as Achebe's There Was a Country, this is a riveting read in African history and literature.
–Library Journal (starred)
This is a powerful recollection of a turbulent time that produced leaders from Tom Mboya and Jomo Kenyatta to the tyrannical Idi Amin in response to the brutality of a dying colonialism.
–Booklist
Praise for Ngugi wa Thiong'o's work:
In his crowded career and his eventful life, Ngugi has enacted, for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a contemporary African writer, caught in sometimes implacable political, social, racial, and linguistic currents.
–John Updike, The New Yorker
Ngugi has dedicated his life to describing, satirising and destabilising the corridors of power...Still living in exile and writing primarily in Gikuyu, Ngugi continues to spin captivating tales.
–The Guardian
Ngugi has flown over the entire African continent and sniffed out all of the foul stenches rising high into the air: complacency toward despotism, repression of women and ethnic minorities, widespread corruption and–undergirding all of these–a neocolonial system in which today's lending banks and multinationals have supplanted yesterday's European overlords.
–The New York Times Book Review