Petals of blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

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.

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The 1955th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - Third World Novels… The Top 10 (New Internationalist)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Petals of Blood Hardcover 4136139 $70.75 $11.43
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o ( Author ) ON Feb-07-2002, Paperback Paperback 12163407 $494.99 $24.06 2002
Petals of Blood (Penguin African Writers Series) Kindle Edition 527772 2005
Petals of Blood (African Writers Series) Hardcover 2193765 $85.11 $0.99 1986
Petals of Blood Paperback 5043695 $19.95 $2.77 1978
Petals of Blood Paperback 2889308 $42.90 $0.25 1991
Petals of Blood Paperback 305290 $11.84 $2.61 2005