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Zusatztext “One of the greatest writers of our time.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie! The Guardian “His novels . . . have been deservedly canonized by the iconic [Penguin Classics] series.” — The Wall Street Journal “Ambitious! caustic! and impassioned.” — The New Yorker “A mind-blowing political statement! an anguished cry of despair . . . a bombshell.” — The Weekly Review (Kenya) Informationen zum Autor Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1938–2025) was an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. In addition to Petals of Blood , his novels Devil on the Cross , A Grain of Wheat , The River Between , and Weep Not, Child are available from Penguin Classics. Moses Isegawa (introduction) was born in Uganda and is the author of the novels Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit . Klappentext "The definitive African book of the twentieth century" (Moses Isegawa, from the Introduction) by the Nobel Prize-nominated Kenyan writer The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time. First published in 1977, this novel was so explosive that its author was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan government. His incarceration was so shocking that newspapers around the world called attention to the case, and protests were raised by human-rights groups, scholars, and writers, including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Harold Pinter, and Margaret Drabble. Part One: Walking . . . And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon had a bow: and there was given unto him a crown: and he came forth conquering, and to conquer . . . And another horse came forth, a red horse: and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, that they should slay one another: and was there given unto him a great sword . . . And I saw, and behold, a black horse; and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand . . . And I saw, and behold, a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death . . . And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of earth, to kill with sword and with famine, and with death. Revelation, Chapter 6 The people scorn’d the ferocity of kings . . . But the sweetness of mercy brew’d destruction, and the frighten’d monarchs come back; Each comes in state, with his train – hangman, priest, tax-gatherer, Soldier, lawyer, lord, jailer, and sycophant. Walt Whitman Chapter One 1 ~ They came for him that Sunday. He had just returned from a night’s vigil on the mountain. He was resting on his bed, Bible open at the Book of Revelation, when two police constables, one tall, the other short, knocked at the door. ‘Are you Mr Munira?’ the short one asked. He had a star-shaped scar above the left brow. ‘Yes.’ ‘You teach at the New Ilmorog Primary School?’ ‘And where do you think you are now standing?’ ‘Ah, yes. We try to be very sure. Murder, after all, is not irio or ugali.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You are wanted at the New Ilmorog Police Station.’ ‘About?’ ‘Murder, of course – murder in Ilmorog.’ The tall one who so far had not spoken hastened to add: ‘It is nothing much, Mr Munira. Just routine que...
