The Perfect Nine
  • Published: 8 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784706784
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

The Perfect Nine

The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi

Formats & editions
EBook
8 Oct 2020
Paperback
8 Jul 2023
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A dazzling, feminist novel in verse that reimagines the origin story of the Gikuyu people of Kenya, from the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls 'one of the greatest writers of our time'

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE.* 'One of the greatest writers of our time' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Perfect Nine is a glorious epic about the founding of Kenya's Gikuyu people and the ideals of beauty, courage and unity.

Gikuyu and Mumbi settled on the peaceful and bounteous foot of Mount Kenya after fleeing war and hunger. When ninety-nine suitors arrive on their land, seeking to marry their famously beautiful daughters, called The Perfect Nine, the parents ask their daughters to choose for themselves, but to choose wisely.

First the young women must embark on a treacherous quest with the suitors, to find a magical cure for their youngest sister, Warigia, who cannot walk. As they journey up the mountain, the number of suitors diminishes and the sisters put their sharp minds and bold hearts to the test, conquering fear, doubt, hunger and many menacing ogres, as they attempt to return home. But it is perhaps Warigia's unexpected adventure that will be most challenging of all.

Blending folklore, mythology and allegory, Ngugi wa Thiong'o chronicles the adventures of Gikuyu and Mumbi, and how their brave daughters became the matriarchs of the Gikuyu clans, in stunning verse, with all the epic elements of danger, humour and suspense.

'A tremendous writer... it's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong'o' Guardian
  • Published: 8 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784706784
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

About the author

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the leading writers and scholars at work in the world today. His books include the novels Petals of Blood, for which he was imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977, A Grain of Wheat and Wizard of the Crow; the memoirs, Dreams in a Time of War, In the House of the Interpreter and Birth of a Dream Weaver; and the essays, Decolonizing the Mind, Something Torn and New and Globalectics. Recipient of many honours, among them ten honorary doctorates, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

portrait photo of Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Also by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas
Petals of Blood
Secret Lives & Other Stories
Wrestling with the Devil
Devil on the Cross
Birth of a Dream Weaver
In the House of the Interpreter
See all

Praise for The Perfect Nine

One of the greatest writers of our time

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A tremendous writer... it's hard to doubt the power of the written word when you hear the story of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Guardian

A visionary writer

Financial Times

In his crowded career and 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

Daily Telegraph

Unfolding in wry and lyrical verse, The Perfect Nine tells a Homeric odyssey of the creation of the entire Gikuyu people-a creationist myth, an adventure tale, and a family story, wherein the wives do not simply wait at home.

Literary Hub

[The Perfect Nine] departs from the sprawl of his past novels into an engaging if slight lyrical epic. Combining Homeric verse with oral storytelling tropes-choruses, chants, songs-he retells the origin myth of the Gikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. . . . Thiong'o's fans will appreciate this.

Publishers Weekly

A vivid, exhilarating tale with a surprisingly modern philosophy that emphasises the importance of tolerance, feminism and respect for the environment

Anthony Gardner, Mail on Sunday

The Perfect Nine uses a deceptively simple language that lays bare deep truths.

Financial Times

In this sinuous retelling by the great Kenyan writer, the founding myth of the Gikuyu people emerges as an epic poem rivalling the Iliad in body count and surpassing it in whimsy.

New Yorker

The Perfect Nine is one of the year's great discoveries.

Economist

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's first venture into epic poetry is a triumph of the form, which resounds with the lyrical heartbeat of the Gikuyu people in Kenya as Ngugi chronicles their mythic history.

World Literature Today

A beautiful work that not only refuses distinctions between "high art" and traditional storytelling, but supplies that all-too rare human necessity: the sense that life has meaning

Fiona Sampson, Guardian

It is the farthest you could possibly get from the grim, wet reality of a lockdown Christmas in London and is exactly what I want to escape with

Alicia Lansom, Refinery29

As pacy and addictive as it is measured. Thick with allegory and adventure...this is a beautifully told epic about the fundamentals of humanity

New Statesman

Ngugi masterfully sings us through an origin story written in verse. This book is a magisterial and poetic tale about women's place in a society of Gods. It is also about disability and how expectations shape and determine characters' spiritual anchoring.

2021 International Booker Prize Judges

[The Perfect Nine's] sophistication comes from the use of the narrative voice, which positions the reader as part of a common humanity

Madhu Krishnan, London Review of Books

Ngugi is a giant of African writing

Carey Baraka, Guardian
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