A Grain of Wheat

Set in a Kenyan village in December 1963, as the country prepares for Uhuru, its independence from Britain, Ngugi wa Thiong’o's novel follows people whose lives were transformed by the Mau Mau rebellion and the Emergency of 1952 to 1960. At its centre is Mugo, a reserved survivor of the detention camps whom the village of Thabai has made its hero, and who carries a terrible secret. Other threads concern the betrayal of the rebel leader Kihika and a love triangle between Mumbi, her husband Gikonyo and her other suitor Karanja. Told through flashbacks, the story draws on myth and alludes to Jomo Kenyatta. It was later named among the hundred best African books of the twentieth century.

Barack Obama included it on the best of 2018 list he posted on Facebook.